CVE-2023-4255

Publication date 2 January 2024

Last updated 19 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Medium

Why this priority?

Cvss 3 Severity Score

5.5 · Medium

Score breakdown

Description

An out-of-bounds write issue has been discovered in the backspace handling of the checkType() function in etc.c within the W3M application. This vulnerability is triggered by supplying a specially crafted HTML file to the w3m binary. Exploitation of this flaw could lead to application crashes, resulting in a denial of service condition.

Status

Package Ubuntu Release Status
w3m 25.10 questing
Fixed 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu1
25.04 plucky
Fixed 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu1
24.10 oracular
Fixed 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu1
24.04 LTS noble
Fixed 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu1
23.10 mantic
Fixed 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu0.23.10.1
23.04 lunar
Fixed 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu0.23.04.1
22.04 LTS jammy
Fixed 0.5.3+git20210102-6ubuntu0.2
20.04 LTS focal
Fixed 0.5.3-37ubuntu0.2
18.04 LTS bionic
Fixed 0.5.3-36ubuntu0.1+esm1
16.04 LTS xenial
Needs evaluation
14.04 LTS trusty
Fixed 0.5.3-15ubuntu0.2+esm2

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Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package Patch details
w3m

Severity score breakdown

Parameter Value
Base score 5.5 · Medium
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality None
Integrity impact None
Availability impact High
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References

Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)

Other references