Skip to content
Fencer Intel
critical 9.3

CVE-2011-2895 json

The LZW decompressor in (1) the BufCompressedFill function in fontfile/decompress.c in X.Org libXfont before 1.4.4 and (2) compress/compres…

published 2011-08-19 15 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2011-2868

cvss
9.3
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
8.4%
EPSS 8.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 94%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The LZW decompressor in (1) the BufCompressedFill function in fontfile/decompress.c in X.Org libXfont before 1.4.4 and (2) compress/compress.c in 4.3BSD, as used in zopen.c in OpenBSD before 3.8, FreeBSD, NetBSD 4.0.x and 5.0.x before 5.0.3 and 5.1.x before 5.1.1, FreeType 2.1.9, and other products, does not properly handle code words that are absent from the decompression table when encountered, which allows context-dependent attackers to trigger an infinite loop or a heap-based buffer overflow, and possibly execute arbitrary code, via a crafted compressed stream, a related issue to CVE-2006-1168 and CVE-2011-2896.

Patch / fix

  • libxfont Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:1.4.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2011-2895

  • freetype RHEL 4 2.1.9-19.el4
  • freetype-demos RHEL 4 2.1.9-19.el4
  • freetype-utils RHEL 4 2.1.9-19.el4
  • xorg-x11 RHEL 4 6.8.2-1.EL.69
  • xorg-x11-sdk RHEL 4 6.8.2-1.EL.69
  • xorg-x11-twm RHEL 4 6.8.2-1.EL.69
  • xorg-x11-xdm RHEL 4 6.8.2-1.EL.69
  • xorg-x11-xfs RHEL 4 6.8.2-1.EL.69

red hat advisories RHSA-2011:1834RHSA-2011:1161RHSA-2011:1155RHSA-2011:1154

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2011-2895 updated cvss 5.1

BSD compress LZW decoder buffer overflow

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 mailx
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) libXfont 1.2.2-1.0.4.el5_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1154
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 freetype 2.1.9-19.el4, xorg-x11 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-sdk 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-twm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xdm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xfs 6.8.2-1.EL.69, +12 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1161
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) libXfont 1.2.2-1.0.4.el5_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1154
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 freetype 2.1.9-19.el4, xorg-x11 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-sdk 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-twm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xdm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xfs 6.8.2-1.EL.69, +12 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 freetype 2.1.9-19.el4, xorg-x11 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-sdk 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-twm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xdm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xfs 6.8.2-1.EL.69, +12 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1161
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS (v. 5.6 server) libXfont 1.2.2-1.0.3.el5_6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1834
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) libXfont 1.4.1-2.el6_1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) libXfont 1.4.1-2.el6_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1154
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 freetype 2.1.9-19.el4, xorg-x11 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-sdk 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-twm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xdm 6.8.2-1.EL.69, xorg-x11-xfs 6.8.2-1.EL.69, +12 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1161
show 2 more
  • Red Hat RHEL Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) libXfont 1.2.2-1.0.4.el5_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1154
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 gzip, mailx, busybox, ncompress Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 gzip, mailx, busybox, freetype, ncompress Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 gzip, busybox, freetype, ncompress, libarchive, freetype-demos, +1 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

8.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 94% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 9.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.