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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2015-4042

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2020-01-24
  • WeaknessCWE-190

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Integer overflow in the keycompare_mb function in sort.c in sort in GNU Coreutils through 8.23 might allow attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via long strings.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-01-2417:15CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Gnu coreutils
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.23≤ 8.23no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • coreutilsSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12all versions · fixed in 8.22-9.1
  • coreutilsSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12all versions · fixed in 8.22-9.1
  • coreutilsSUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12all versions · fixed in 8.22-9.1
  • coreutilsopenSUSE:Tumbleweedall versions · fixed in 8.26-1.1
  • coreutilsMageia:4all versions · fixed in 8.21-6.2.mga4

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2015-4042 Red Hat Product Security4 known affected

    coreutils: possible buffer overflow in keycompare_mb()

    coreutils as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · coreutils-libs as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · coreutils.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · +1 more

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2015-4042 · 5 productsThis flaw is triggered by using sort on specially crafted malicious data file. When using sort with trusted inputs, this flaw cannot be triggered.
  2. No fix available, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2015-4042 · 4 productsAffected

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-01-24
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-9qcx-32pg-7pqp

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2015-4042?

Integer overflow in the keycompare_mb function in sort.c in sort in GNU Coreutils through 8.23 might allow attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via long strings.

Is CVE-2015-4042 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2015-4042 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.3% on 2026-11-08, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2015-4042?

CVE-2015-4042 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Sources for this record