# CVE-2019-17041: Memory corruption in n/a

> A heap overflow in Rsyslog's AIX log parser allows attackers to cause denial of service or execute arbitrary code via crafted log messages.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 7 Oct 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2019-17041, DEBIAN-CVE-2019-17041, GHSA-wvqp-mg76-5qw7, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-17041

## What is CVE-2019-17041?

CVE-2019-17041 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 7 Oct 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Rsyslog v8.1908.0. contrib/pmaixforwardedfrom/pmaixforwardedfrom.c has a heap overflow in the parser for AIX log messages. The parser tries to locate a log message delimiter (in this case, a space or a colon) but fails to account for strings that do not satisfy this constraint. If the string does not match, then the variable lenMsg will reach the value zero and will skip the sanity check that detects invalid log messages. The message will then be considered valid, and the parser will eat up the nonexistent colon delimiter. In doing so, it will decrement lenMsg, a signed integer, whose value was zero and now becomes minus one. The following step in the parser is to shift left the contents of the message. To do this, it will call memmove with the right pointers to the target and destination strings, but the lenMsg will now be interpreted as a huge value, causing a heap overflow.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-17041?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Opensuse Leap, Rsyslog Rsyslog.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-17041?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-17041 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-17041 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- https://github.com/Resery/CVE-2019-17041 (github_poc): https://github.com/Resery/CVE-2019-17041

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-17041 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-17041 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 7 Oct 2019. 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-2019-17041 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2019-17041/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-17041/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-17041
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-17041
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-17041

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-17041/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.