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CVE-2015-4041· NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

The keycompare_mb function in sort.c in sort in GNU Coreutils through 8.23 on 64-bit platforms performs a size calculation without consideri

The keycompare_mb function in sort.c in sort in GNU Coreutils through 8.23 on 64-bit platforms performs a size calculation without considering the number of bytes occupied by multibyte characters, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via long UTF-8 strings.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Jan 24, 2020
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
0.5% · 42th percentile
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Report tools

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Action score

31

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.5%

Affected systems

VendorProduct
gnucoreutils

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • gnu coreutilsup to 8.23 inclusive

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
openSUSE:Tumbleweedcoreutilsbefore 8.26-1.18.26-1.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12coreutilsbefore 8.22-9.18.22-9.1

Same product

gnu: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2015-4042Integer 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 se
    40Plan
  • CVE-2014-9471The parse_datetime function in GNU coreutils allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code
    32Monitor
  • CVE-2017-18018In GNU Coreutils through 8.29, chown-core.c in chown and chgrp does not prevent replacement of a plain file with a symlink during use of the
    28Monitor
  • CVE-2024-0684Coreutils: heap overflow in split --line-bytes with very long lines
    22Monitor
  • CVE-2015-1865fts.c in coreutils 8.4 allows local users to delete arbitrary files.
    20Monitor
  • CVE-2026-56391Out‑of‑bounds Read in GNU coreutils
    18Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
opensuse:coreutils8.26-1.1 · openSUSE:TumbleweedPackage registry (OSV)
suse:coreutils8.22-9.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-787 · Out-of-bounds Write

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

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Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

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References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records