Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-45666

critical Nessus Plugin ID 232143

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- stb_image is a single file MIT licensed library for processing images. It may look like `stbi__load_gif_main` doesn't give guarantees about the content of output value `*delays` upon failure.
Although it sets `*delays` to zero at the beginning, it doesn't do it in case the image is not recognized as GIF and a call to `stbi__load_gif_main_outofmem` only frees possibly allocated memory in `*delays` without resetting it to zero. Thus it would be fair to say the caller of `stbi__load_gif_main` is responsible to free the allocated memory in `*delays` only if `stbi__load_gif_main` returns a non null value. However at the same time the function may return null value, but fail to free the memory in `*delays` if internally `stbi__convert_format` is called and fails. Thus the issue may lead to a memory leak if the caller chooses to free `delays` only when `stbi__load_gif_main` didn't fail or to a double- free if the `delays` is always freed (CVE-2023-45666)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-45666

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-45666

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 232143

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2023_45666.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/6/2025

Updated: 9/1/2025

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.3

Temporal Score: 3.2

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2023-45666

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:libstb, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libstb, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.04, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0

Required KB Items: Host/OS/identifier, Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/20/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-45666