# CVE-2011-3594: Memory corruption in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash the application via invalid UTF-8 sequences in the SILC protocol plug-in, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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:** 4 Nov 2011
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2011-3594, GHSA-5qw6-gghj-96qh

## What is CVE-2011-3594?

CVE-2011-3594 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Pidgin Pidgin, published on 4 Nov 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The g_markup_escape_text function in the SILC protocol plug-in in libpurple 2.10.0 and earlier, as used in Pidgin and possibly other products, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via invalid UTF-8 sequences that trigger use of invalid pointers and an out-of-bounds read, related to interactions with certain versions of glib2.

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2011-3594?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Pidgin Libpurple, Pidgin Pidgin.

## How do I fix CVE-2011-3594?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2011-3594 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2011-3594 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Pidgin Pidgin

- [CVE-2009-2703](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-2703/): Null dereference in n/a (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-2009-3083](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3083/): Null dereference in n/a (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-2009-3084](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3084/): The msn_slp_process_msg function in libpurple/protocols/msn/slpcall.c in the MSN protocol plugin in libpurple 2.6.0 and 2.6.1, as used in Pi (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-2009-3085](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3085/): Denial of service in n/a (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-2011-2943](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-2943/): Null dereference in n/a (medium 4.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2011-3594 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2011-3594 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Pidgin Pidgin, published on 4 Nov 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-2011-3594 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Pidgin Pidgin. 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-2011-3594/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3594/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-3594
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-3594
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2011-3594

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3594/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.