CVE-2023-29491

Exp

ncurses before 6.4 20230408, when used by a setuid application, allows local users to trigger security-relevant memory corruption via malformed data in a terminfo database file that is found in $HOME/.terminfo or reached via the TERMINFO or TERM environment variable.

Published: 2023-04-13 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-29491 is rated High Exploit Risk (66.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.92%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2023-29491

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-29491

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 0.07% 0.92% +0.86%
2 2025-03-30 0.16% 0.07% -0.10%
3 2025-03-29 — 0.16% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-29491

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-29491

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-29491

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-29491: 1 source package rows (ncurses); 6 state rows across 6 repos (3.17-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 6, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-29491
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-29491 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ncurses), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-29491
gentoo normal CVE-2023-29491: 1 GLSA(s) (202408-19), 2 atom(s) (sys-libs/ncurses, sys-libs/ncurses-compat); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-29491
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-29491
suse medium CVE-2023-29491 severity moderate: SUSE including 717 source package names (0.0.17-1.1:libncurses6-6.1-150000.5.15.1, 0.0.17-1.1:terminfo-base-6.1-150000.5.15.1, …), 2266 product×package rows across 521 product lines (Container bci/bci-base-fips, Container bci/bci-init, … (521 product lines)): Fixed 2119, Known Affected 147. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-29491/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-29491 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ncurses), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-29491

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-29491

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu ncurses < 6.4 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:ncurses:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-29491

URL Tags
http://ncurses.scripts.mit.edu/?p=ncurses.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=eb51b1ea1f75a0ec17c9c5937cb28df1e8eeec56
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/19/10 Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/19/11 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/12/msg00004.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/LU4MYMKFEZQ5VSCVLRIZGDQOUW3T44GT/
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230517-0009/
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213843
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213844
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213845
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/12/5 Mailing List
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/13/4 Mailing List Patch
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/LU4MYMKFEZQ5VSCVLRIZGDQOUW3T44GT/
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