Process crash via unchecked lexer state index
Published Aug 8, 2025 · Updated Aug 8, 2025
Buffer overflow in GNU cflow 1.8 and earlier allows local users to crash the process by supplying a malformed C source file. The yylex lexer uses a corrupted yy_current_state value as an unchecked index into yy_accept, causing an out-of-bounds memory access. The user must be able to run cflow on attacker-controlled input; the demonstrated consequence is a segmentation fault, while broader confidentiality and integrity effects are scored but not publicly demonstrated.
Summary
What happened
Buffer overflow in GNU cflow 1.8 and earlier allows local users to crash the process by supplying a malformed C source file. The yylex lexer uses a corrupted yy_current_state value as an unchecked index into yy_accept, causing an out-of-bounds memory access. The user must be able to run cflow on attacker-controlled input; the demonstrated consequence is a segmentation fault, while broader confidentiality and integrity effects are scored but not publicly demonstrated.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-8736
- Published
- Aug 8, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 8, 2025
- Vendor
- The GnuPG Project
- Product
- GNU cflow
- Classifications
- CWE-120, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 8, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 8, 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=1.0
- Affected versionversion=1.1
- Affected versionversion=1.2
- Affected versionversion=1.3
- Affected versionversion=1.4
- Affected versionversion=1.5
- Affected versionversion=1.6
- Affected versionversion=1.7
- Affected versionversion=1.8
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- POC_cflow_yylex_buffer_overflowproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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