MAWK 1.3.3-17 Stack-Based Buffer Overflow

published 2026-03-28 7 mo ago modified 2026-07-15 3 mo ago also EUVD-2017-18951

cvss: 9.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.6%; EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 49%
public exploits: 0; none known

MAWK 1.3.3-17 and prior contains a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code by exploiting inadequate boundary checks on user-supplied input. Attackers can craft malicious input that overflows the stack buffer and execute a return-oriented programming chain to spawn a shell with application privileges.

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-2017-20229 updated 2026-03-31 cvss 7.3

MAWK: MAWK: Arbitrary Code Execution via Stack-based Buffer Overflow

Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: Proof of concept is public
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 7 mo ago (2026-03-30)

Exploit prediction

0.61% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 49% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

exploit-db.com https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42357 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	4.0	9.3	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA	3.1	9.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA	4.0	9.3	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected products

mawk MAWK

Classification

Weakness

CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write

References

exploit-db.com /exploits/42357
exploit, vdb-entry
vulncheck.com /advisories/mawk-17-stack-based-buffer-overflow
third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2017-20229
NVD CVE-2017-20229

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.

Summary