Heap corruption via unbounded formatted string copy
Published Jun 26, 2025 · Updated Jun 26, 2025
Buffer overflow in Matplotlib allows attackers to corrupt heap memory through an oversized font path passed to an exposed API. The Printf::Printf constructor in src/mplutils.cpp sends attacker-influenced formatted data to vsprintf, which writes past a fixed 1,024-byte buffer without a length limit. Reachability requires Python execution or an application path that accepts an attacker-controlled font string; the published reproducer corrupts the Python process heap and terminates it.
Summary
What happened
Buffer overflow in Matplotlib allows attackers to corrupt heap memory through an oversized font path passed to an exposed API. The Printf::Printf constructor in src/mplutils.cpp sends attacker-influenced formatted data to vsprintf, which writes past a fixed 1,024-byte buffer without a length limit. Reachability requires Python execution or an application path that accepts an attacker-controlled font string; the published reproducer corrupts the Python process heap and terminates it.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2013-1424
- Published
- Jun 26, 2025
- Updated
- Jun 26, 2025
- Vendor
- Matplotlib
- Product
- Matplotlib
- Classifications
- CWE-120, T1203
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 26, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 26, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=before upstream commit ba4016014cb4fb4927e36ce8ea429fed47dcb787
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- FT2Font oversized-path crash reproducerproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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