# CVE-2023-4949: Memory Corruption Vulnerability in Grub-Legacy's XFS Implementation

> A local attacker can exploit memory corruption in Grub-Legacy's XFS implementation via a modified partition to execute code or escalate privileges.

- **Severity:** High 8.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 10 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 3 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2023-4949

## What is CVE-2023-4949?

CVE-2023-4949 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Xen Xen, published on 10 Nov 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An attacker with local access to a system (either through a disk or external drive) can present a modified XFS partition to grub-legacy in such a way to exploit a memory corruption in grub’s XFS file system implementation.

Weakness: CWE-190 (Integer Overflow or Wraparound), CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write), CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-4949?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Gnu Grub, Xen Xen.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-4949?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-4949 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-4949 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-4949 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Xen Xen

- [CVE-2013-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-4577/): Information disclosure in n/a (low 2.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-4949 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-4949 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Xen Xen, published on 10 Nov 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-4949 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Xen Xen. 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-2023-4949/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4949/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-4949
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-4949
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-4949

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4949/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.