CVE-2015-8972

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2017-01-23 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-119

Description

Stack-based buffer overflow in the ValidateMove function in frontend/move.cc in GNU Chess (aka gnuchess) before 6.2.4 might allow context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via a large input, as demonstrated when in UCI mode.

Affected products

GNU Chess: before 6.2.4 — fixed in 6.2.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: GNU Chess 6.2.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-chess/2015-10/msg00002.html
http://svn.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/chess?revision=134&view=revision
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/13/2
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/14/11
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/14/12
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-chess/2015-10/msg00002.html
http://svn.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/chess?revision=134&view=revision
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/13/2
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/14/11
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/14/12

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