Multiple integer overflows in GNU Grep before 2.11 might allow context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors involving a long input line that triggers a heap-based buffer overflow. (CVE-2012-5667)

The remote MiracleLinux 4 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the AXSA:2015-422:01 advisory.

    The GNU versions of commonly used grep utilities. Grep searches through     textual input for lines which contain a match to a specified pattern and then     prints the matching lines. GNU's grep utilities include grep, egrep and fgrep.
    GNU grep is needed by many scripts, so it shall be installed on every system.
    Security issues fixed with this release:
    CVE-2012-5667     CVE-2015-1345     Fixed bugs:
    * Prior to this update, the \w and \W symbols were inconsistently matched to the     [:alnum:] character class. Consequently, regular expressions that used \w and \W     in some cases had incorrect results. An upstream patch which fixes the matching     problem has been applied to fix this bug.
    * Previously, the --fixed-regexp command-line option was not included in the     grep(1) manual page. Consequently, the manual page was inconsistent with the     built-in help of the grep utility. To fix this bug, grep(1) has been updated to     include a note informing the user that --fixed-regexp is an obsolete option.
    * Previously, the Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) library did not work     correctly when matching non-UTF-8 text in UTF-8 mode. Consequently, an error     message about invalid UTF-8 byte sequence characters was returned. To fix this     bug, patches from upstream have been applied to the PCRE library and the grep     utility.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the MiracleLinux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201403-07 (grep: User-assisted execution of arbitrary code)

    An integer overflow flaw has been discovered in grep.
  Impact :

    An attacker could entice a user to run grep on a specially crafted file,       possibly resulting in  execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of       the process or a Denial of Service condition.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

Updated grep packages that fix two security issues, several bugs, and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Low security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

The grep utility searches through textual input for lines that contain a match to a specified pattern and then prints the matching lines. The GNU grep utilities include grep, egrep, and fgrep.

An integer overflow flaw, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow, was found in the way grep parsed large lines of data. An attacker able to trick a user into running grep on a specially crafted data file could use this flaw to crash grep or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running grep. (CVE-2012-5667)

A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the way grep processed certain pattern and text combinations. An attacker able to trick a user into running grep on specially crafted input could use this flaw to crash grep or, potentially, read from uninitialized memory.
(CVE-2015-1345)

The grep packages have been upgraded to upstream version 2.20, which provides a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version. Notably, the speed of various operations has been improved significantly. Now, the recursive grep utility uses the fts function of the gnulib library for directory traversal, so that it can handle much larger directories without reporting the 'File name too long' error message, and it can operate faster when dealing with large directory hierarchies. (BZ#982215, BZ#1064668, BZ#1126757, BZ#1167766, BZ#1171806)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* Prior to this update, the \w and \W symbols were inconsistently matched to the [:alnum:] character class. Consequently, regular expressions that used \w and \W in some cases had incorrect results.
An upstream patch which fixes the matching problem has been applied, and \w is now matched to the [_ [:alnum:]] character and \W to the [^_[:alnum:]] character consistently. (BZ#799863)

* Previously, the '--fixed-regexp' command-line option was not included in the grep(1) manual page. Consequently, the manual page was inconsistent with the built-in help of the grep utility. To fix this bug, grep(1) has been updated to include a note informing the user that '--fixed-regexp' is an obsolete option. Now, the built-in help and manual page are consistent regarding the '--fixed-regexp' option.
(BZ#1103270)

* Previously, the Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) library did not work correctly when matching non-UTF-8 text in UTF-8 mode.
Consequently, an error message about invalid UTF-8 byte sequence characters was returned. To fix this bug, patches from upstream have been applied to the PCRE library and the grep utility. As a result, PCRE now skips non-UTF-8 characters as non-matching text without returning any error message. (BZ#1193030)

All grep users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which correct these issues and add these enhancements.

An integer overflow flaw, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow, was found in the way grep parsed large lines of data. An attacker able to trick a user into running grep on a specially crafted data file could use this flaw to crash grep or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running grep. (CVE-2012-5667)

A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the way grep processed certain pattern and text combinations. An attacker able to trick a user into running grep on specially crafted input could use this flaw to crash grep or, potentially, read from uninitialized memory.
(CVE-2015-1345)

The grep packages have been upgraded to upstream version 2.20, which provides a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version. Notably, the speed of various operations has been improved significantly. Now, the recursive grep utility uses the fts function of the gnulib library for directory traversal, so that it can handle much larger directories without reporting the 'File name too long' error message, and it can operate faster when dealing with large directory hierarchies.

This update also fixes the following bugs :

  - Prior to this update, the \w and \W symbols were     inconsistently matched to the [:alnum:] character class.
    Consequently, regular expressions that used \w and \W in     some cases had incorrect results. An upstream patch     which fixes the matching problem has been applied, and     \w is now matched to the [_[:alnum:]] character and \W     to the [^_[:alnum:]] character consistently.

  - Previously, the '--fixed-regexp' command-line option was     not included in the grep(1) manual page. Consequently,     the manual page was inconsistent with the built-in help     of the grep utility. To fix this bug, grep(1) has been     updated to include a note informing the user that     '--fixed-regexp' is an obsolete option. Now, the     built-in help and manual page are consistent regarding     the '--fixed-regexp' option.

  - Previously, the Perl Compatible Regular Expression     (PCRE) library did not work correctly when matching     non-UTF-8 text in UTF-8 mode. Consequently, an error     message about invalid UTF-8 byte sequence characters was     returned. To fix this bug, patches from upstream have     been applied to the PCRE library and the grep utility.
    As a result, PCRE now skips non-UTF-8 characters as     non-matching text without returning any error message.

An integer overflow flaw, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow, was found in the way grep parsed large lines of data. An attacker able to trick a user into running grep on a specially crafted data file could use this flaw to crash grep or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running grep. (CVE-2012-5667)

A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the way grep processed certain pattern and text combinations. An attacker able to trick a user into running grep on specially crafted input could use this flaw to crash grep or, potentially, read from uninitialized memory.
(CVE-2015-1345)

The remote Solaris system is missing necessary patches to address security updates :

  - Multiple integer overflows in GNU Grep before 2.11 might     allow context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary     code via vectors involving a long input line that     triggers a heap-based buffer overflow. (CVE-2012-5667)

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2015-1447 advisory.

    - Fixed buffer overrun for grep -F       Resolves: CVE-2015-1345

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
101094	F5 Networks BIG-IP : Grep vulnerability (K69662152)	Nessus	F5 Networks Local Security Checks	6/29/2017	12/15/2025	medium
289608	MiracleLinux 4 : grep-2.20-3.AXS4 (AXSA:2015-422:01)	Nessus	Miracle Linux Local Security Checks	1/16/2026	1/16/2026	medium
73220	GLSA-201403-07 : grep: User-assisted execution of arbitrary code	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	3/27/2014	1/6/2021	medium
85022	CentOS 6 : grep (CESA-2015:1447)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	7/28/2015	1/4/2021	medium
85194	Scientific Linux Security Update : grep on SL6.x i386/x86_64 (20150722)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/4/2015	1/14/2021	medium
86076	Amazon Linux AMI : grep (ALAS-2015-598)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	9/23/2015	4/18/2018	medium
80634	Oracle Solaris Third-Party Patch Update : grep (cve_2012_5667_heap_buffer)	Nessus	Solaris Local Security Checks	1/19/2015	1/14/2021	medium
84948	RHEL 6 : grep (RHSA-2015:1447)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	7/23/2015	2/5/2021	medium
85108	Oracle Linux 6 : grep (ELSA-2015-1447)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/30/2015	10/22/2024	medium

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