# CVE-2017-13733: Denial of service in n/a

> An illegal address access in the ncurses library allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via crafted input.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 29 Aug 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2017-13733, DEBIAN-CVE-2017-13733, GHSA-mh85-7j94-rc6w, SUSE-SU-2018:0178-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-13733

## What is CVE-2017-13733?

CVE-2017-13733 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

There is an illegal address access in the fmt_entry function in progs/dump_entry.c in ncurses 6.0 that might lead to a remote denial of service attack.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-13733?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `ncurses` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 | All versions | 5.6-93.15.1 |
| `ncurses` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 11 SP4 | All versions | 5.6-93.15.1 |
| `ncurses` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 11 SP4 | All versions | 5.6-93.15.1 |

Products: Invisible-Island Ncurses.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-13733?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2017-13733 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-13733 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2017-10684](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10684/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-10685](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10685/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-29491](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-29491/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-16879](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16879/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-13728](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-13728/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-13733 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-13733 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-13733 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2017-13733/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-13733/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-13733
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-13733
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-13733

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-13733/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.