Integer Overflow
Integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation produces a result that exceeds the maximum value a given integer type can store.
How It Works
Integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation produces a result that exceeds the maximum value a given integer type can store. In C/C++, this causes the value to "wrap around" to a small number—for example, if a 32-bit unsigned integer at maximum value (4,294,967,295) has 1 added, it wraps to 0. Attackers exploit this by providing carefully crafted input values that, when used in calculations, produce unexpectedly small results.
The most dangerous scenario involves memory allocation. An attacker supplies large values that overflow during size calculations (often when adding header sizes, element counts, or alignment padding), producing a small allocation size. When the program later writes the originally intended large amount of data into this undersized buffer, a heap overflow occurs. For instance: size = user_count * sizeof(struct) + header might overflow if user_count is sufficiently large, resulting in malloc() allocating a tiny buffer that subsequent operations overflow.
Integer overflows also enable logic bypasses. Length checks can be circumvented when overflowed values appear to pass validation. Loop bounds may become incorrect, causing excessive iterations or premature termination. Signed integer overflow (technically undefined behavior in C/C++) can flip positive values to negative, bypassing security checks that assume non-negative numbers.
Impact
- Heap buffer overflow: Undersized allocations lead to memory corruption, enabling arbitrary code execution
- Authentication bypass: Overflowed counters or size checks may skip security validations
- Denial of service: Invalid memory operations cause crashes or infinite loops
- Information disclosure: Incorrect bounds allow reading beyond intended memory regions
- Privilege escalation: Combined with memory corruption, can compromise system integrity
Real-World Examples
The OpenSSH authentication bypass (CVE-2002-0639) involved an integer overflow in challenge-response handling where the number of responses could overflow, allowing authentication bypass. The overflow caused allocation of insufficient memory, which subsequent code exploited to execute arbitrary code.
ImageMagick suffered multiple integer overflow vulnerabilities (CVE-2016-3714 and related) where maliciously crafted image files with extreme dimension values caused size calculations to overflow. This resulted in small heap allocations followed by large writes, enabling remote code execution through image processing.
The Linux kernel's do_brk() function (CVE-2003-0961) contained an integer overflow when calculating memory region sizes. Attackers could wrap the size value to bypass length checks and map memory at arbitrary locations, achieving local privilege escalation.
Mitigation
- Safe arithmetic libraries: Use compiler intrinsics (
__builtin_add_overflow) or libraries (SafeInt, Rust's checked arithmetic) that detect overflow - Pre-calculation validation: Check that operands won't overflow before performing arithmetic operations
- Compiler protections: Enable
-ftrapv(GCC) or/RTCc(MSVC) to trap signed overflow; use UBSan for detection - Use larger types: Perform calculations in 64-bit integers when operands are 32-bit, verify result fits before casting down
- Input validation: Enforce maximum reasonable values on user input before arithmetic
- Modern languages: Use languages with overflow checking (Rust, Swift) or arbitrary precision integers (Python, Java BigInteger)
Recent CVEs (2762)
In several functions that parse avrc response in avrc_pars_ct.cc and related files, there are possible out of bounds reads due to integer overflows. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Integer Overflow or Wraparound in GitHub repository radareorg/radare2 prior to 5.8.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.
xrdp is an open source project which provides a graphical login to remote machines using Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Integer overflow vulnerability in Samsung decoding library for video thumbnails prior to SMR Dec-2022 Release 1 allows local attacker to perform Out-Of-Bounds Write. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An integer overflow in the VNC module in VideoLAN VLC Media Player through 3.0.17.4 allows attackers, by tricking a user into opening a crafted playlist or connecting to a rogue VNC server, to crash. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
In wlan driver, there is a possible missing bounds check, This could lead to local denial of service in wlan services. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan driver, there is a possible missing bounds check, This could lead to local denial of service in wlan services. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan driver, there is a possible missing bounds check, This could lead to local denial of service in wlan services. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan driver, there is a possible missing bounds check, This could lead to local denial of service in wlan services. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel through 6.0.10. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
An issue was discovered in libxml2 before 2.10.3. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
A CWE-191: Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound) vulnerability exists that could cause a denial of service of the controller due to memory access violations when using the Modbus TCP protocol. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In shared_metadata_init of SharedMetadata.cpp, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In fdt_next_tag of fdt.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In libpixman in Pixman before 0.42.2, there is an out-of-bounds write (aka heap-based buffer overflow) in rasterize_edges_8 due to an integer overflow in pixman_sample_floor_y. 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.
An integer overflow vulnerability exists in the web interface /action/ipcamRecordPost functionality of Abode Systems, Inc. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
The Keccak XKCP SHA-3 reference implementation before fdc6fef has an integer overflow and resultant buffer overflow that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or eliminate expected cryptographic. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Memory corruption in WLAN due to integer overflow to buffer overflow while parsing GTK frames. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Denial of service in BOOT when partition size for a particular partition is requested due to integer overflow when blocks are calculated in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.6), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.
An integer underflow issue was found in the QEMU VNC server while processing ClientCutText messages in the extended format. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
In sensor driver, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Azure RTOS USBX is a high-performance USB host, device, and on-the-go (OTG) embedded stack, that is fully integrated with Azure RTOS ThreadX. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
GNU oSIP v5.3.0 was discovered to contain an integer overflow via the component osip_body_parse_header. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In rndis_set_response of rndis.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.6), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.
The trudesk application allows large characters to insert in the input field "Full Name" on the signup field which can allow attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via a crafted HTTP request in. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
An integer underflow in WhatsApp could have caused remote code execution when receiving a crafted video file. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Redis is an in-memory database that persists on disk. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
TensorFlow is an open source platform for machine learning. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
Possible integer overflow and memory corruption due to improper validation of buffer size sent to write to console when computing the payload size in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Memory corruption in bluetooth due to integer overflow while processing HFP-UNIT profile in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Memory corruption in audio while playing record due to improper list handling in two threads in Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Wearables. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Memory corruption in audio module due to integer overflow in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Wearables. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Memory Corruption during wma file playback due to integer overflow 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.
In extract3GPPGlobalDescriptions of TextDescriptions.cpp, there is a possible out of bounds read due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
An integer overflow in WatchGuard Firebox and XTM appliances allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to trigger a buffer overflow and potentially execute arbitrary code by sending a malicious. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In audio ipi, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In vow, there is a possible out of bounds read due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In teei, there is a possible memory corruption due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.19. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.1), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
Xpdf prior to 4.04 lacked an integer overflow check in JPXStream.cc. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In Xpdf prior to 4.04, the DCT (JPEG) decoder was incorrectly allowing the 'interleaved' flag to be changed after the first scan of the image, leading to an unknown integer-related vulnerability in. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Poppler prior to and including 22.08.0 contains an integer overflow in the JBIG2 decoder (JBIG2Stream::readTextRegionSeg() in JBIGStream.cc). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Xpdf prior to version 4.04 contains an integer overflow in the JBIG2 decoder (JBIG2Stream::readTextRegionSeg() in JBIG2Stream.cc). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Frontier is Substrate's Ethereum compatibility layer. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
libtiff's tiffcrop tool has a uint32_t underflow which leads to out of bounds read and write in the extractContigSamples8bits routine. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.
libtiff's tiffcrop utility has a uint32_t underflow that can lead to out of bounds read and write. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.
A crafted HTTP packet with a -1 content-length header can create a denial-of-service condition in Softing Secure Integration Server V1.22. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A flaw was found in Blender 3.3.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
An integer overflow exists in Mapbox's closed source gl-native library prior to version 10.6.1, which is bundled with multiple Mapbox products including open source libraries. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In Bluetooth, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In Bluetooth, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In AllocateInternalBuffers of g3aa_buffer_allocator.cc, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In construct_transaction of lwis_ioctl.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In ioctl_dpm_clk_update of lwis_ioctl.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Rizin v0.4.0 and below was discovered to contain an integer overflow via the function get_long_object(). Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
WolfSSH v1.4.7 was discovered to contain an integer overflow via the function wolfSSH_SFTP_RecvRMDIR. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
NVIDIA DGX A100 contains a vulnerability in SBIOS in the SmmCore, where a user with high privileges can chain another vulnerability to this vulnerability, causing an integer overflow, possibly. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Integer Overflow or Wraparound in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 9.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
An integer overflow in the component hb-ot-shape-fallback.cc of Harfbuzz v4.3.0 allows attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via unspecified vectors. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
A vulnerability was found in ImageMagick, causing an outside the range of representable values of type 'unsigned long' at coders/pcl.c, when crafted or untrusted input is processed. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
A vulnerability was found in ImageMagick, causing an outside the range of representable values of type 'unsigned char' at coders/psd.c, when crafted or untrusted input is processed. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
In ioctl_dpm_qos_update and ioctl_event_control_set of (TBD), there is a possible out of bounds write due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Memory corruption in bluetooth host due to integer overflow while processing BT HFP-UNIT profile in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Apache HTTP Server 2.4.53 and earlier may crash or disclose information due to a read beyond bounds in ap_strcmp_match() when provided with an extremely large input buffer. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The ap_rwrite() function in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.53 and earlier may read unintended memory if an attacker can cause the server to reflect very large input using ap_rwrite() or ap_rputs(), such as. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In apusys driver, there is a possible system crash due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In apusys driver, there is a possible system crash due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In apusys driver, there is a possible system crash due to an integer overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Vapor is an HTTP web framework for Swift. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Integer Overflow or Wraparound in GitHub repository polonel/trudesk prior to 1.2.3. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
An integer overflow was addressed with improved input validation. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An integer overflow issue was addressed with improved input validation. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An integer underflow in fuse_lib_readdir enables arbitrary memory read operations in NTFS-3G through 2021.8.22 when using libfuse-lite. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
epub2txt2 v2.04 was discovered to contain an integer overflow via the function bug in _parse_special_tag at sxmlc.c. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Lodestar is a TypeScript implementation of the Ethereum Consensus specification. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Integer Overflow vulnerability could allow attackers to cause unexpected behavior through arithmetic overflow.
Solana solana_rbpf before 0.2.29 has an addition integer overflow via invalid ELF program headers. 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.
Integer Overflow or Wraparound in GitHub repository polonel/trudesk prior to 1.2.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Spring Security versions 5.5.x prior to 5.5.7, 5.6.x prior to 5.6.4, and earlier unsupported versions contain an integer overflow vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Integer Overflow or Wraparound vulnerability in io_uring of Linux Kernel allows local attacker to cause memory corruption and escalate privileges to root. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Allowing long password leads to denial of service in polonel/trudesk in GitHub repository polonel/trudesk prior to 1.2.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
FISCO-BCOS release-3.0.0-rc2 was discovered to contain an issue where a malicious node, via an invalid proposal with an invalid header, will cause normal nodes to stop producing new blocks and. 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.
FISCO-BCOS release-3.0.0-rc2 was discovered to contain an issue where a malicious node can trigger an integer overflow and cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via an unusually large viewchange message. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in GitHub repository causefx/organizr prior to 2.1.2000. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Allowing long password leads to denial of service in GitHub repository causefx/organizr prior to 2.1.2000. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
There is a vulnerability in htmldoc 1.9.16. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
A denial of service vulnerability exists in the libxm_av.so DemuxCmdInBuffer functionality of Anker Eufy Homebase 2 2.1.8.5h. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
On F5 BIG-IP 16.1.x versions prior to 16.1.2.2, 15.1.x versions prior to 15.1.5.1, 14.1.x versions prior to 14.1.4.6, and 13.1.x versions prior to 13.1.5, on platforms with an ePVA and the. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In ffjpeg (commit hash: caade60), the function bmp_load() in bmp.c contains an integer overflow vulnerability, which eventually results in the heap overflow in jfif_encode() in jfif.c. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.