# CVE-2011-1071: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via long UTF8 strings in fnmatch calls within the GNU C Library.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.1 (`AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 8 Apr 2011
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2011-1071, GHSA-w4p3-xg4g-ff4x

## What is CVE-2011-1071?

CVE-2011-1071 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Glibc, published on 8 Apr 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) before 2.12.2 and Embedded GLIBC (EGLIBC) allow context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a long UTF8 string that is used in an fnmatch call, aka a "stack extension attack," a related issue to CVE-2010-2898, CVE-2010-1917, and CVE-2007-4782, as originally reported for use of this library by Google Chrome.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2011-1071?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Gnu Eglibc, Gnu Glibc.

## How do I fix CVE-2011-1071?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2011-1071 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-1071 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- GNU glibc < 2.12.2 - 'fnmatch()' Stack Corruption (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Glibc

- [CVE-2011-2702](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-2702/): Integer overflow in n/a (medium 6.8)
- [CVE-2013-4788](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-4788/): Memory corruption in n/a (medium 5.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2011-1071 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2011-1071 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Glibc, published on 8 Apr 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-1071 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Gnu Glibc. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1071/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1071/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-1071
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-1071
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2011-1071

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-1071/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.