CVE-2011-10015: Cytel Studio <= 9.0 .CY3 File Stack Buffer Overflow

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.3 v4.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-08-13 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-121

Description

Cytel Studio version 9.0 and earlier is vulnerable to a stack-based buffer overflow triggered by parsing a malformed .CY3 file. The vulnerability occurs when the application copies user-controlled strings into a fixed-size stack buffer (256 bytes) without proper bounds checking. Exploitation allows arbitrary code execution when the crafted file is opened.

Affected products

Cytel Inc. Cytel Studio: through 9.0

References

http://aluigi.altervista.org/adv/cytel_1-adv.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/windows/fileformat/cytel_studio_cy3.rb
https://web.archive.org/web/20110301000000*/http://www.cytel.com/Software/StatXact.aspx
https://web.archive.org/web/20110708215826/http://www.cytel.com/Software/LogXact.aspx
https://web.archive.org/web/20110708215830/http://www.cytel.com/Software/StatXact.aspx
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/17930
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/18027
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cytel-studio-cy3-file-stack-buffer-overflow
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/windows/fileformat/cytel_studio_cy3.rb
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/18027

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