# CVE-2017-16231: Denial of service in n/a

> A self-recursive call in PCRE's match function causes a stack overflow crash, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Mar 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2017-16231, DEBIAN-CVE-2017-16231, GHSA-5hhr-8qw3-63p2

## What is CVE-2017-16231?

CVE-2017-16231 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 Mar 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In PCRE 8.41, after compiling, a pcretest load test PoC produces a crash overflow in the function match() in pcre_exec.c because of a self-recursive call. NOTE: third parties dispute the relevance of this report, noting that there are options that can be used to limit the amount of stack that is used

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-16231?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Pcre Pcre.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-16231?

No fix published yet.

## Is CVE-2017-16231 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2017-16231 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2015-3210](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3210/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-3191](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-3191/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-7245](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7245/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-7246](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7246/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-11164](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-11164/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-16231 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-16231 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 Mar 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2017-16231 exists.

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-2017-16231/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16231/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-16231
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-16231
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-16231

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16231/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.