CWEweakness
CWE-786 Access of Memory Location Before Start of Buffer
- Abstraction
- Base
- Structure
- Simple
- Status
- Incomplete
- Languages
- C, C++, Memory-Unsafe
- CWE version
- 5.0
Description
The product reads or writes to a buffer using an index or pointer that references a memory location prior to the beginning of the buffer.
Common consequences
• Confidentiality: Read Memory — For an out-of-bounds read, the attacker may have access to sensitive information. If the sensitive information contains system details, such as the current buffer's position in memory, this knowledge can be used to craft further attacks, possibly with more severe consequences.
• Integrity, Availability: Modify Memory, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart — Out of bounds memory access will very likely result in the corruption of relevant memory, and perhaps instructions, possibly leading to a crash.
• Integrity: Modify Memory, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands — If the corrupted memory can be effectively controlled, it may be possible to execute arbitrary code. If the corrupted memory is data rather than instructions, the system will continue to function with improper changes, possibly in violation of an implicit or explicit policy.
Detection methods
• Fuzzing: Fuzz testing (fuzzing) is a powerful technique for generating large numbers of diverse inputs - either randomly or algorithmically - and dynamically invoking the code with those inputs. Even with random inputs, it is often capable of generating unexpected results such as crashes, memory corruption, or resource consumption. Fuzzing effectively produces repeatable test cases that clearly indicate bugs, which helps developers to diagnose the issues.
• Automated Dynamic Analysis: Use tools that are integrated during
compilation to insert runtime error-checking mechanisms
related to memory safety errors, such as AddressSanitizer
(ASan) for C/C++ [REF-1518].
Observed examples
• CVE-2002-2227: Unchecked length of SSLv2 challenge value leads to buffer underflow.
• CVE-2007-4580: Buffer underflow from a small size value with a large buffer (length parameter inconsistency, CWE-130)
• CVE-2007-1584: Buffer underflow from an all-whitespace string, which causes a counter to be decremented before the buffer while looking for a non-whitespace character.
• CVE-2007-0886: Buffer underflow resultant from encoded data that triggers an integer overflow.
• CVE-2006-6171: Product sets an incorrect buffer size limit, leading to "off-by-two" buffer underflow.
• CVE-2006-4024: Negative value is used in a memcpy() operation, leading to buffer underflow.
• CVE-2004-2620: Buffer underflow due to mishandled special characters
Related
Observed example · CVE (7)
- CVE-2007-4580 Buffer underflow in redlight.sys in BufferZone 2.1 and 2.5 allows local users to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute… vulnerability
- CVE-2007-1584 Buffer underflow in the header function in PHP 5.2.0 allows context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code by passing an… vulnerability
- CVE-2007-0886 Heap-based buffer underflow in axigen 1.2.6 through 2.0.0b1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) and… vulnerability
- CVE-2006-6171 ProFTPD 1.3.0a and earlier does not properly set the buffer size limit when CommandBufferSize is specified in the configuration file, which… vulnerability
- CVE-2006-4024 The FESTAHES_Load function in pce/hes.c in Festalon 0.5.0 through 0.5.5 allows user-assisted attackers to cause a denial of service (crash)… vulnerability
- CVE-2004-2620 The MIMEH_read_headers function in ripMIME 1.3.1.0 does not properly handle trailing "\r" and "\n" characters in headers, which leads to a… vulnerability
- CVE-2002-2227 Buffer underflow in ssldump 0.9b2 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted SSLv2… vulnerability
Child of · CWE (1)
- CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer weakness
Referenced by CVE · weakness (9)
- CVE-2026-20058 Multiple Cisco products are affected by vulnerabilities in the Snort 3 VBA feature that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to… vulnerability
- CVE-2024-5700 Memory safety bugs present in Firefox 126, Firefox ESR 115.11, and Thunderbird 115.11. vulnerability
- CVE-2024-27808 The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. vulnerability
- CVE-2024-27828 The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. vulnerability
- CVE-2024-27831 An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved input validation. vulnerability
- CVE-2024-27840 The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. vulnerability
- CVE-2023-46724 Squid is a caching proxy for the Web. vulnerability
- CVE-2022-0522 Access of Memory Location Before Start of Buffer in NPM radare2.js prior to 5.6.2. vulnerability
- CVE-2022-0351 Access of Memory Location Before Start of Buffer in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 8.2. vulnerability
Referenced by CWE · child of (2)
Referenced by CWE · has member (1)
- CWE-884 CWE Cross-section view