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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2015-8972 json

Stack-based buffer overflow in the ValidateMove function in frontend/move.cc in GNU Chess (aka gnuchess) before 6.2.4 might allow context-d…

published 2017-01-23 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-8826

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.8%
EPSS 3.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Stack-based buffer overflow in the ValidateMove function in frontend/move.cc in GNU Chess (aka gnuchess) before 6.2.4 might allow context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via a large input, as demonstrated when in UCI mode.

Patch / fix

  • gnu chess 6.2.4
  • gnuchess Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.2.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8972

  • gnuchess openSUSE Tumbleweed 6.2.4-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10338-1

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-2015-8972 updated cvss 7.8

gnuchess: Stack-based buffer overflow on user move input

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 gnuchess
    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

3.76% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • lists.gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-chess/2015-10/msg00002.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

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.