GNU coreutils uniq is vulnerable to an out‑of‑bounds read due to incorrect handling of multibyte input when the -w (--check-chars) option is used. The find_field() function miscalculates the byte length of characters by repeatedly processing a fixed pointer instead of advancing through the input, resulting in an inflated length value. This incorrect length is later used in a memcmp operation, causing reads beyond the allocated buffer when processing crafted multibyte input.
When running GNU coreutils uniq with attacker-provided arguments, this behavior leads to a crash and potential adjacent heap memory exposure.
This issue has been fixed in the commit d64e35a8a4c0e4608321433e0d84d917e4e36371.
Exploitability
AV:LAC:LAT:NPR:NUI:AVulnerable System
VC:LVI:NVA:LSubsequent System
SC:NSI:NSA:N4.6/CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NMemory Safety