A new vulnerability has been discovered and noted by NIST, one known as CVE-2024-2961. In the GNU C Compiler Library, in versions 2.39 and older, the iconv() function may overflow the output buffer (this process is called a buffer overflow) by up to four bytes when performing a string conversion to a specific character set. A buffer overflow of this kind can cause the victim application to crash or even overwrite a variable neighboring it in memory.
What is a Buffer Overflow
A buffer overflow occurs when data is stored in a fixed-size sequential section of a computer’s memory. Faulty coding or error can result in more data than can fit in this allocated buffer. Computers tend to insert the data into each empty portion of the buffer until the excess portion needs to be placed. It ‘Overflows’ into adjacent memory sections outside of the buffer’s limits, altering their contents. An attacker may use this occurrence to crash the target system, alter its functionality, or even take control of the system through the insertion of malware.
How the attack works
the iconv() (used to convert between character encodings) function may overflow the output buffer (this process is called a buffer overflow) by up to four bytes when performing a string conversion to ISO-2022-CN-EXT, a character set standard.
Learn More
You can learn more about Vulnerabilities from a reputable source at NIST‘s National Vulnerability Database (NVD), a registry of all the various kinds of security vulnerabilities as yet discovered where one can find each categorized, ranked, and explained in detail.
The GNU Compiler Library has extensive documentation, which is reachable on their website and can be perused for updates and documentation for the C Language, one of the most popular and enduring programming languages in the world today.
Another source where one may find information about security threats, attacks, or best practices is OWASP‘s website, where one may learn extensively about the various kinds of security threats and even get involved with their activities and participate in learning.
