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Fencer Intel
medium 5.0

CVE-2014-4975 json

Off-by-one error in the encodes function in pack.c in Ruby 1.9.3 and earlier, and 2.x through 2.1.2, when using certain format string speci…

published 2014-11-15 11 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2014-4890

cvss
5.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.5%
EPSS 3.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Off-by-one error in the encodes function in pack.c in Ruby 1.9.3 and earlier, and 2.x through 2.1.2, when using certain format string specifiers, allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault) via vectors that trigger a stack-based buffer overflow.

Patch / fix

  • ruby2.0 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.0.0.484-1ubuntu2.1
  • ruby1.9.1 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1.9.3.484-2ubuntu1.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2014-4975

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • ruby4.0 hummingbird 1 4.0.0-33.3.hum1
  • ruby4.0-libs hummingbird 1 4.0.0-33.3.hum1
  • ruby4.0-bundled-gems hummingbird 1 4.0.0-33.3.hum1
  • ruby4.0-default-gems hummingbird 1 4.0.0-33.3.hum1
  • ruby3.3 hummingbird 1 3.3.10-23.1.hum1
  • ruby3.3-libs hummingbird 1 3.3.10-23.1.hum1
  • ruby3.3-bundled-gems hummingbird 1 3.3.10-23.1.hum1
  • ruby3.3-default-gems hummingbird 1 3.3.10-23.1.hum1

red hat advisories RHSA-2026:8838RHSA-2026:7305RHSA-2026:7307RHSA-2014:1914RHSA-2014:1913RHSA-2014:1912

  • ruby2.1 SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +6 more 2.1.9-15.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:1067-1

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-2014-4975 updated cvss 2.6

ruby: off-by-one stack-based buffer overflow in the encodes() function

  • Red Hat CloudForms Management Engine 5 mingw-ruby, mingw32-ruby, mingw64-ruby, ruby193-ruby Red Hat OpenShift Enterprise 1 ruby193-ruby
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Hardened Images ruby
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 3 ruby193-ruby Red Hat OpenStack Platform 4 ruby193-ruby Red Hat Subscription Asset Manager ruby193-ruby
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygems 2.0.14-22.el7_0, ruby-irb 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-json 1.7.7-22.el7_0, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-22.el7_0, ruby-libs 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-22.el7_0, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-22.el7_0 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygems 2.0.14-22.el7_0, ruby-irb 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-json 1.7.7-22.el7_0, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-22.el7_0, ruby-libs 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-22.el7_0, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-22.el7_0 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygems 2.0.14-22.el7_0, ruby-irb 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-json 1.7.7-22.el7_0, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-22.el7_0, ruby-libs 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-22.el7_0, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-22.el7_0
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygems 2.0.14-22.el7_0, ruby-irb 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-json 1.7.7-22.el7_0, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-22.el7_0, ruby-libs 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-22.el7_0, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.353-22.el7_0, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-22.el7_0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1912
  • Red Hat Hardened Images ruby3.4 3.4.8-31.1.hum1, ruby4.0 4.0.0-33.3.hum1, ruby3.3 3.3.10-23.1.hum1, ruby3.4-libs 3.4.8-31.1.hum1, ruby4.0-libs 4.0.0-33.3.hum1, ruby3.3-libs 3.3.10-23.1.hum1, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:7305
  • Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) ruby193-ruby 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby200-ruby 2.0.0.353-24.el6, ruby193-rubygems 1.8.23-50.el6, ruby200-rubygems 2.0.14-24.el6, ruby193-ruby-irb 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby193-rubygem-json 1.5.5-50.el6, +17 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ruby193-ruby 1.9.3.484-50.el7, ruby200-ruby 2.0.0.353-24.el7, ruby193-rubygems 1.8.23-50.el7, ruby200-rubygems 2.0.14-24.el7, ruby193-ruby-irb 1.9.3.484-50.el7, ruby193-rubygem-json 1.5.5-50.el7, +17 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.4) ruby193-ruby 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby200-ruby 2.0.0.353-24.el6, ruby193-rubygems 1.8.23-50.el6, ruby200-rubygems 2.0.14-24.el6, ruby193-ruby-irb 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby193-rubygem-json 1.5.5-50.el6, +17 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.5) ruby193-ruby 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby200-ruby 2.0.0.353-24.el6, ruby193-rubygems 1.8.23-50.el6, ruby200-rubygems 2.0.14-24.el6, ruby193-ruby-irb 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby193-rubygem-json 1.5.5-50.el6, +17 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.6) ruby193-ruby 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby200-ruby 2.0.0.353-24.el6, ruby193-rubygems 1.8.23-50.el6, ruby200-rubygems 2.0.14-24.el6, ruby193-ruby-irb 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby193-rubygem-json 1.5.5-50.el6, +17 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) ruby193-ruby 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby200-ruby 2.0.0.353-24.el6, ruby193-rubygems 1.8.23-50.el6, ruby200-rubygems 2.0.14-24.el6, ruby193-ruby-irb 1.9.3.484-50.el6, ruby193-rubygem-json 1.5.5-50.el6, +17 more
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ruby193-ruby 1.9.3.484-50.el7, ruby200-ruby 2.0.0.353-24.el7, ruby193-rubygems 1.8.23-50.el7, ruby200-rubygems 2.0.14-24.el7, ruby193-ruby-irb 1.9.3.484-50.el7, ruby193-rubygem-json 1.5.5-50.el7, +17 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1913
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ruby Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 ruby, ruby-ri, ruby-irb, ruby-libs, ruby-rdoc, ruby-tcltk Red Hat Hardened Images rubygem3.3-rbs 3.4.0-23.1.hum1, rubygem3.3-rss 0.3.1-23.1.hum1, rubygem3.4-rbs 3.8.0-31.1.hum1, rubygem3.4-rss 0.3.1-31.1.hum1, rubygem4.0-rss 0.3.2-33.3.hum1, rubygem3.3-irb 1.13.1-23.1.hum1, +45 more Red Hat Satellite 6 rubygem-rake
    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

3.46% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

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.