# CVE-2015-8985: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause application crashes via extended regular expression processing in the GNU C Library, affecting system stability.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 Mar 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** AZL-44559, AZL-45306, DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8985, GHSA-chf9-h36m-6388, SUSE-SU-2022:3942-1, SUSE-SU-2022:3942-2, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8985

## What is CVE-2015-8985?

CVE-2015-8985 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Glibc, published on 20 Mar 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The pop_fail_stack function in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (assertion failure and application crash) via vectors related to extended regular expression processing.

Weakness: CWE-19

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-8985?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `glibc` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-LTSS | All versions | 2.22-114.22.1 |
| `glibc` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 | All versions | 2.22-114.22.1 |
| `glibc` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP4 | All versions | 2.22-114.22.1 |
| `glibc` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5 | All versions | 2.22-114.22.1 |
| `glibc` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 | All versions | 2.22-114.22.1 |
| `glibc` | SUSE:OpenStack Cloud 9 | All versions | 2.22-114.22.1 |
| `glibc` | SUSE:OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 | All versions | 2.22-114.22.1 |

Products: Gnu Glibc.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-8985?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2015-8985 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-8985 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Glibc

- [CVE-2026-5450](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-5450/): scanf %mc off-by-one heap buffer overflow (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-25139](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25139/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-1999-0199](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0199/): Other in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-1010022](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1010022/): Security feature bypass in glibc (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2005-3590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-3590/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-8985 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-8985 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Glibc, published on 20 Mar 2017. 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-2015-8985 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-2015-8985/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-8985/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-8985
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-8985
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-8985

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-8985/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.