CVE-2017-0898

Exp

Ruby before 2.4.2, 2.3.5, and 2.2.8 is vulnerable to a malicious format string which contains a precious specifier (*) with a huge minus value. Such situation can lead to a buffer overrun, resulting in a heap memory corruption or an information disclosure from the heap.

Published: 2017-09-15 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-0898 is rated High Exploit Risk (89.6/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 9.72%, 95th percentile). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +8.32% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2017-0898

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-0898

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 1.40% 9.72% +8.32%
2 2026-06-01 1.04% 1.40% +0.35%
3 2026-05-31 — 1.04% —

Full EPSS history (58 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-0898

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.1 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.2 [email protected]
6.4 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-0898

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-0898

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2017-0898: 1 source package rows (ruby); 10 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2017-0898
gentoo normal CVE-2017-0898: 1 GLSA(s) (201710-18), 1 atom(s) (dev-lang/ruby); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2017-0898
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-0898
suse medium CVE-2017-0898 severity moderate: SUSE including 24 source package names (libruby2_1-2_1-2.1.9-19.3.2, ruby, …), 177 product×package rows across 67 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (67 product lines)): Fixed 140, Known Not Affected 32, Will Not Fix 5. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-0898/
ubuntu medium CVE-2017-0898 medium priority: Ubuntu including 3 source packages (ruby1.9.1, ruby2.0, ruby2.3), 18 status rows across 6 suites (artful, bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): DNE 10, released 5, needs-triage 2, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-0898

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-0898

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.3 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.4 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.5 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.6 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.2.7 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.3.2 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.3.3 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.3.4 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby 2.4.1 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-0898

cvelogic Threat Intelligence