# CVE-2014-8964: Memory corruption in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service or potentially execute code via a crafted regular expression in the PCRE library.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/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:** 16 Dec 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2014-8964, GHSA-86jv-65cg-v7gc, MGASA-2014-0534, RHSA-2015:0330, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-8964

## What is CVE-2014-8964?

CVE-2014-8964 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 16 Dec 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Heap-based buffer overflow in PCRE 8.36 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or have other unspecified impact via a crafted regular expression, related to an assertion that allows zero repeats.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-8964?

It affects 11 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `pcre` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-static` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-static` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-static` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-static` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |
| `pcre-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:8.32-14.el7 |

Products: Fedoraproject Fedora, Mariadb Mariadb, Opensuse Opensuse, Oracle Solaris, Pcre Pcre, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Redhat Enterprise Linux Eus, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Aus, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Tus, Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-8964?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2014-8964 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-8964 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Fedora

- [CVE-2024-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4577/): PHP-CGI OS Command Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-39226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39226/): Grafana Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-5544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5544/): VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4947](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4947/): Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4671](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4671/): Google Chromium Visuals Use-After-Free (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-8964 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-8964 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 16 Dec 2014. 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-2014-8964 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Fedoraproject Fedora. 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-2014-8964/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-8964/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-8964
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-8964
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-8964

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-8964/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.