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Fencer Intel
critical 9.1

CVE-2015-8869 json

Buffer overflow and information leak in OCaml < 4.03.0

published 10y ago modified 3d ago also EUVD-2015-8725 , OSEC-2016-01

cvss
9.1
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
5.3%
EPSS 5.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 92%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

OCaml before 4.03.0 does not properly handle sign extensions, which allows remote attackers to conduct buffer overflow attacks or obtain sensitive information as demonstrated by a long string to the String.copy function.

Patch / fix

  • opam ocaml 4.03.0
  • ocaml Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.02.3-9

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8869

  • ocaml Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.01.0-3ubuntu3.1
  • ocaml Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 4.02.3-5ubuntu2+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8869

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

  • ocaml RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6
  • ocaml-x11 RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6
  • ocaml-emacs RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6
  • ocaml-camlp4 RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6
  • ocaml-labltk RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6
  • ocaml-source RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6
  • ocaml-runtime RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6
  • ocaml-ocamldoc RHEL 6 3.11.2-5.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:0565RHSA-2017:0564RHSA-2016:1296RHSA-2016:2576

  • ocaml SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 4.02.1-3.4
  • ocaml SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP1 4.02.3-6.6.14

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:2192-1SUSE-SU-2016:2194-1

  • ocaml Arch Linux 4.03.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-13

Is CVE-2015-8869 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2015-8869 updated cvss 4.4

ocaml: sizes arguments are sign-extended from 32 to 64 bits

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-xfs 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-java 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-tools 1.32.7-3.el7, perl-Sys-Guestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, python-libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2576
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) virt-dib 1.32.7-3.el7, ocaml 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, lua-guestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, ocaml-x11 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, libguestfs-gfs2 1.32.7-3.el7, ruby-libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, +15 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ocaml 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, ocaml-x11 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, ocaml-emacs 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, ocaml-camlp4 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, ocaml-labltk 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, ocaml-source 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1296
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-java 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools 1.20.11-20.el6, perl-Sys-Guestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, python-libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools-c 1.20.11-20.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) ocaml 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-x11 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-emacs 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-camlp4 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-labltk 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-source 3.11.2-5.el6, +5 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-java 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools 1.20.11-20.el6, perl-Sys-Guestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, python-libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools-c 1.20.11-20.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) ocaml 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-x11 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-emacs 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-camlp4 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-labltk 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-source 3.11.2-5.el6, +5 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-java 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools 1.20.11-20.el6, perl-Sys-Guestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, python-libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools-c 1.20.11-20.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0564
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) virt-p2v 1.32.7-2.el7, virt-v2v 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-xfs 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-java 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-tools 1.32.7-3.el7, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2576
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) ocaml 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-x11 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-emacs 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-camlp4 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-labltk 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-source 3.11.2-5.el6, +5 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0564
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) virt-dib 1.32.7-3.el7, ocaml 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, lua-guestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, ocaml-x11 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, libguestfs-gfs2 1.32.7-3.el7, ruby-libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1296
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-java 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools 1.20.11-20.el6, perl-Sys-Guestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, python-libguestfs 1.20.11-20.el6, libguestfs-tools-c 1.20.11-20.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0564
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-xfs 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-java 1.32.7-3.el7, libguestfs-tools 1.32.7-3.el7, perl-Sys-Guestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, python-libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2576
show 2 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) ocaml 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-x11 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-emacs 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-camlp4 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-labltk 3.11.2-5.el6, ocaml-source 3.11.2-5.el6, +5 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0564
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) virt-dib 1.32.7-3.el7, ocaml 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, lua-guestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, ocaml-x11 4.01.0-22.7.el7_2, libguestfs-gfs2 1.32.7-3.el7, ruby-libguestfs 1.32.7-3.el7, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1296

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

5.31% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 92% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.1 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.4 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P
OSV 3.0 9.1 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
opam ocaml
<4.03.0
4.03.0

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

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.