Buffer Overflow
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.
How It Works
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions. This overwrites whatever data or code exists there, corrupting program state and potentially giving attackers control over execution flow.
Stack-based overflows are the most common variant. When a function allocates a fixed-size buffer on the stack and then copies user-controlled input without proper bounds checking, attackers can overflow past the buffer to overwrite the function's return address. When the function completes, instead of returning to legitimate code, execution jumps to attacker-specified memory containing malicious shellcode. Heap-based overflows work differently—they corrupt heap metadata like chunk size fields or free list pointers, leading to arbitrary memory writes when the allocator processes the corrupted structures.
Modern exploitation bypasses defensive mechanisms through techniques like Return-Oriented Programming (ROP), which chains together existing code snippets to avoid non-executable memory protections. Attackers may also use heap spraying to reliably position shellcode at predictable addresses, defeating address randomization.
Impact
- Remote code execution — attacker gains ability to run arbitrary commands with the privileges of the vulnerable process
- Privilege escalation — exploiting kernel or setuid program overflows to gain root/SYSTEM access
- Denial of service — crashes and memory corruption that render systems unusable
- Information disclosure — reading sensitive data from adjacent memory regions that should be inaccessible
- Authentication bypass — overwriting security-critical variables like permission flags or user IDs
Real-World Examples
Fortinet FortiOS suffered a critical buffer overflow (CVE-2025-32756) that allowed unauthenticated remote attackers to execute code as root on firewalls and VPN gateways. Attackers actively exploited this to compromise enterprise network perimeters before patches were available.
The Slammer worm from 2003 exploited a stack overflow in Microsoft SQL Server, spreading to 75,000 hosts in ten minutes by sending a single malformed UDP packet that overwrote the return address with shellcode. No authentication was required.
OpenSSH historically contained a heap overflow in challenge-response authentication that allowed pre-authentication remote root compromise on Unix systems, demonstrating how memory corruption in privileged network services creates maximum impact scenarios.
Mitigation
- Memory-safe languages — Rust, Go, and modern managed languages prevent buffer overflows by design through automatic bounds checking
- Stack canaries — random values placed before return addresses that detect corruption before control transfer
- Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) — randomizes memory locations making exploitation less reliable
- Data Execution Prevention (DEP/NX) — marks memory regions as non-executable, preventing direct shellcode execution
- Bounds checking — validate input sizes before copying, use safe functions like
strncpyinstead ofstrcpy - Fuzzing and static analysis — automated testing to discover overflows before deployment
Recent CVEs (36635)
Possible buffer overflow due to improper validation of FTM command payload in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT,. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Possible heap overflow due to improper length check of domain while parsing the DNS response in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A FTM Diag command can allow an arbitrary write into modem OS space in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Possible memory corruption due to Improper handling of hypervisor unmap operations for concurrent memory operations in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.0). No vendor patch available.
Possible integer overflow can occur due to improper length check while calculating count and grace period in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Industrial IOT,. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Broadcom Emulex HBA Manager/One Command Manager versions before 11.4.425.0 and 12.8.542.31, if not installed in Strictly Local Management mode, have a buffer overflow vulnerability in the remote. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A buffer overflow was discovered on Realtek RTL8195AM devices before 2.0.10. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A memory corruption vulnerability exists in Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect portal and gateway interfaces that enables an unauthenticated network-based attacker to disrupt system processes and. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A memory corruption vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS GlobalProtect Clientless VPN enables an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code with root user privileges during SAML. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Chakra Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. This Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability could allow attackers to write data beyond allocated buffer boundaries leading to code execution or crashes.
A vulnerability has been identified in Capital Embedded AR Classic 431-422 (All versions), Capital Embedded AR Classic R20-11 (All versions < V2303). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability has been identified in Capital Embedded AR Classic 431-422 (All versions), Capital Embedded AR Classic R20-11 (All versions < V2303). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability has been identified in Capital Embedded AR Classic 431-422 (All versions), Capital Embedded AR Classic R20-11 (All versions < V2303). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Zydis is an x86/x86-64 disassembler library. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. Public exploit code available.
ImportedSymbols in debug/macho (for Open or OpenFat) in Go before 1.16.10 and 1.17.x before 1.17.3 Accesses a Memory Location After the End of a Buffer, aka an out-of-bounds slice situation. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in Barrier before 2.3.4. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Buffer Copy without Size Check vulnerability could allow attackers to overflow a buffer to corrupt adjacent memory.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability could allow attackers to read data from memory outside the intended buffer boundaries.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability could allow attackers to read data from memory outside the intended buffer boundaries.
vim is vulnerable to Heap-based Buffer Overflow. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.14.15. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
A local buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the latest version of Miniftpd in ftpproto.c through the tmp variable, where a crafted payload can be sent to the affected function. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Broadcom Emulex HBA Manager/One Command Manager versions before 11.4.425.0 and 12.8.542.31, if not installed in Strictly Local Management mode, have a buffer overflow vulnerability in the remote. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
A stack-based buffer under-read in htmldoc before 1.9.12, allows attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted BMP image to image_load_bmp. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow') vulnerability in the stats-over-http plugin of Apache Traffic Server allows an attacker to overwrite memory.1.0. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Buffer Copy without Size Check vulnerability could allow attackers to overflow a buffer to corrupt adjacent memory.
Certain HP Enterprise LaserJet, HP LaserJet Managed, HP Enterprise PageWide, HP PageWide Managed products may be vulnerable to potential buffer overflow. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Mozilla developers reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 92 and Firefox ESR 91.1. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Mozilla developers reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 92 and Firefox ESR 91.1. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Mozilla developers reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 92. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
During process shutdown, a document could have caused a use-after-free of a languages service object, leading to memory corruption and a potentially exploitable crash. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
During operations on MessageTasks, a task may have been removed while it was still scheduled, resulting in memory corruption and a potentially exploitable crash. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Mozilla developers reported memory safety bugs present in Thunderbird 78.13.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Mozilla developers reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 91. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Mozilla developers reported memory safety bugs present in Firefox 91 and Firefox ESR 78.13. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In versions prior to 1.1 of the Eclipse Paho MQTT C Client, the client does not check rem_len size in readpacket. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability could allow attackers to write data beyond allocated buffer boundaries leading to code execution or crashes.
Buffer overflow vulnerability in the compatible API with previous versions CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, EXPRESSCLUSTER X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 SingleServerSafe. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Buffer overflow vulnerability in the Transaction Server CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, EXPRESSCLUSTER X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 SingleServerSafe for Windows and. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Buffer overflow vulnerability in the Transaction Server CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, EXPRESSCLUSTER X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 SingleServerSafe for Windows and. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Buffer overflow vulnerability in the Disk Agent CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, EXPRESSCLUSTER X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 SingleServerSafe for Windows and earlier,. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Buffer overflow vulnerability in the Disk Agent CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, EXPRESSCLUSTER X 4.3 for Windows and earlier, CLUSTERPRO X 4.3 SingleServerSafe for Windows and earlier,. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Out of bounds read in WebAudio in Google Chrome prior to 95.0.4638.54 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Heap buffer overflow in Settings in Google Chrome prior to 95.0.4638.54 allowed a remote attacker to engage with Dev Tools to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Heap buffer overflow in PDFium in Google Chrome prior to 95.0.4638.54 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Heap buffer overflow in Skia in Google Chrome prior to 95.0.4638.54 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.6), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
heap buffer overflow in WebRTC in Google Chrome prior to 94.0.4606.81 allowed a remote attacker who convinced a user to browse to a malicious website to potentially exploit heap corruption via a. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Heap buffer overflow in Blink in Google Chrome prior to 94.0.4606.81 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A stack-based buffer overflow in Fortinet FortiWeb version 6.4.0, version 6.3.15 and below, 6.2.5 and below allows attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via crafted HTTP requests. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in Nsasoft US LLC SpotAuditor 5.3.5. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Buffer overflow vulnerability in Kodi xbmc up to 19.0, allows attackers to cause a denial of service due to improper length of values passed to istream. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
For certain valid JPEG XL images with a size slightly larger than an integer number of groups (256x256 pixels) when processing the groups out of order the decoder can perform an out of bounds copy of. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Invalid JPEG XL images using libjxl can cause an out of bounds access on a std::vector<std::vector<T>> when rendering splines. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
libmysofa is vulnerable to Heap-based Buffer Overflow. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Tenda AC9 V1.0 through V15.03.05.19(6318), and AC9 V3.0 V15.03.06.42_multi, allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via the index parameter. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Tenda AC9 V1.0 through V15.03.05.19(6318), and AC9 V3.0 V15.03.06.42_multi, allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via the urls parameter. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved input validation. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved input validation. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved state management. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved input validation. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
There is a Memory out-of-bounds access vulnerability in Huawei Smartphone.Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may cause malicious code to be executed. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
There is a Buffer overflow vulnerability in Huawei Smartphone.Successful exploitation of this vulnerability by sending malicious images and inducing users to open the images may cause remote code. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
There is an Out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Huawei Smartphone. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
There is an Out-of-bounds memory access in Huawei Smartphone.Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may cause process exceptions. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Improper Input Validation vulnerability. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Integer Overflow or Wraparound vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Improper Input Validation vulnerability. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A component of the HarmonyOS has a Integer Overflow or Wraparound vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Multiple buffer overflows in the limited configuration shell (/sbin/gs_config) on Grandstream HT801 devices before 1.0.29 allow remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary code as root via a. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.14.8. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
vim is vulnerable to Heap-based Buffer Overflow. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
A vulnerability in the web services interface of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability in SSL/TLS message handler for Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability in the software-based SSL/TLS message handler of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability in the processing of SSH connections for multi-instance deployments of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
There is an out of bounds write vulnerability in some Huawei products. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A crafted request with invalid offsets may cause an out-of-bounds read or write access in CODESYS V2 Runtime Toolkit 32 Bit full and PLCWinNT prior to versions V2.4.7.56, resulting in a. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Crafted web server requests can be utilised to read partial stack or heap memory or may trigger a denial-of- service condition due to a crash in the CODESYS V2 web server prior to V1.1.9.22. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Crafted web server requests may cause a heap-based buffer overflow and could therefore trigger a denial-of- service condition due to a crash in the CODESYS V2 web server prior to V1.1.9.22. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.