CVE-2019-16941

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    CVE-2019-16941

    Published: 28 Sept 2019Last Modified: 7 Aug 2026

    Summary:

    Details: NSA Ghidra through 9.0.4, when experimental mode is enabled, allows arbitrary code execution if the Read XML Files feature of Bit Patterns Explorer is used with a modified XML document. This occurs in Features/BytePatterns/src/main/java/ghidra/bitpatterns/info/FileBitPatternInfoReader.java. An attack could start with an XML document that was originally created by DumpFunctionPatternInfoScript but then directly modified by an attacker (for example, to make a java.lang.Runtime.exec call).

    References: https://twitter.com/NSAGov/status/1178812792159248385, https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/blob/79d8f164f8bb8b15cfb60c5d4faeb8e1c25d15ca/Ghidra/Features/BytePatterns/src/main/java/ghidra/bitpatterns/info/FileBitPatternInfoReader.java#L187-L188, https://www.symantec.com/security-center/vulnerabilities/writeup/110223?om_rssid=sr-advisories, https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/commit/a17728f8c12effa171b17a25ccfb7e7d9528c5d0, https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/issues/1090, https://github.com/purpleracc00n/CVE-2019-16941

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name:

    Purl:

    Affected ranges

    Type: GIT

    Events:

    Introduced- 0
    Fixed -None

    Affected versions

    Ghidra_9.0.4_build
    Ghidra_9.0.3_build
    Ghidra_9.0.1_build

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High