CVE-2023-3138

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Moderate Moderate Impact What does this mean?
7.3 CVSS v3 Base Score

Description

A vulnerability was found in libX11. The security flaw occurs because the functions in src/InitExt.c in libX11 do not check that the values provided for the Request, Event, or Error IDs are within the bounds of the arrays that those functions write to, using those IDs as array indexes. They trust that they were called with values provided by an Xserver adhering to the bounds specified in the X11 protocol, as all X servers provided by X.Org do. As the protocol only specifies a single byte for these values, an out-of-bounds value provided by a malicious server (or a malicious proxy-in-the-middle) can only overwrite other portions of the Display structure and not write outside the bounds of the Display structure itself, possibly causing the client to crash with this memory corruption.

Statement

The identified security vulnerability in the libX11 library, categorized with a moderate impact, stems from a lack of bounds checking in certain functions within the library's InitExt.c file. Specifically, these functions do not verify that the values provided for Request, Event, or Error IDs fall within the bounds specified by the X11 protocol. Consequently, if a malicious X server or intermediary manipulates these values, it can trigger memory corruption within the client's Display structure. While this can lead to crashes or instability within the client application, the impact is constrained within the client's memory space and does not directly compromise sensitive data or system resources beyond it. The vulnerability requires specific conditions, such as interaction with a malicious server or intermediary, which limits its practical exploitability.

Mitigation

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.

Additional Information

External References

Content from www.cve.org is not included.https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-3138

Content from nvd.nist.gov is not included.https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-3138

Content from gitlab.freedesktop.org is not included.https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libx11/-/commit/304a654a0d57bf0f00d8998185f0360332cfa36c

Content from lists.x.org is not included.https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announce/2023-June/003406.html

Content from lists.x.org is not included.https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announce/2023-June/003407.html

Affected Packages and Issued Red Hat Security Errata

Products / Services Components State Errata
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libX11 Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 libX11 Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 libX11 Fixed RHSA-2023:7029
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support libX11 Fixed RHSA-2024:1417
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 libX11 Fixed RHSA-2023:6497
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Extended Update Support libX11 Fixed RHSA-2024:1088
Unless explicitly stated as not affected, all previous versions of packages in any minor update stream of a product listed here should be assumed vulnerable, although may not have been subject to full analysis.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authorities (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown Red Hat NVD
CVSS v3 Base Score 7.3 7.5
Attack Vector Network Network
Attack Complexity Low Low
Privileges Required Low None
User Interaction Required None
Scope Unchanged Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact None None
Integrity Impact High None
Availability Impact High High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

NVD CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation

This vulnerability arises due to the absence of bounds checking in the functions responsible for writing to arrays using these IDs as indexes. Exploiting this flaw requires low privileges (PR:L) and user interaction (UI:R), as an attacker could craft malicious input, potentially through a compromised server or proxy, triggering memory corruption. While the X11 protocol specifies single-byte values for these IDs, an out-of-bounds value could overwrite adjacent memory areas within the Display structure, leading to severe consequences (I:H) such as system crashes or unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

 For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?
  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • "Affected" means that our Analysis Team has determined that this product is affected by this vulnerability and might release a fix to address this in the near future.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

 A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

 A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

 A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

 The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

 In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our This content is not included.Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

My product is listed as "Out of Support Scope". What does this mean?

 When a product is listed as "Out of Support Scope", it means a vulnerability with the impact level assigned to this CVE is no longer covered by its current support lifecycle phase. The product has been identified to contain the impacted component, but analysis to determine whether it is affected or not by this vulnerability was not performed. The product should be assumed to be affected. Customers are advised to apply any mitigation options documented on this page, consider removing or disabling the impacted component, or upgrade to a supported version of the product that has an update available.