CVE-2019-15548
Buffer overflow and format vulnerabilities in ncurses
An issue was discovered in the ncurses crate through 5.99.0 for Rust. There are instr and mvwinstr buffer overflows because interaction with C functions is mishandled.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
An issue was discovered in the ncurses crate through 5.99.0 for Rust. There are instr and mvwinstr buffer overflows because interaction with C functions is mishandled.
- Record
CVE-2019-15548- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.5 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-119
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
An issue was discovered in the ncurses crate through 5.99.0 for Rust. There are instr and mvwinstr buffer overflows because interaction with C functions is mishandled.
- Record
CVE-2019-15548- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2021-1716 No score
An issue was discovered in the ncurses crate through 5.99.0 for Rust. There are instr and mvwinstr buffer overflows because interaction with C functions is mishandled.
- Record
EUVD-2021-1716- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-g7r5-x7cr-vm3v
Buffer overflow and format vulnerabilities in ncurses
ncurses exposes functions from the ncurses library which:
- Pass buffers without length to C functions that may write an arbitrary amount of data, leading to a buffer overflow. (instr, mvwinstr, etc)
- Passes rust &str to strings expecting C format arguments, allowing hostile input to execute a format string attack, which trivially allows writing arbitrary data to stack memory (functions in the printw family).
- Record
GHSA-g7r5-x7cr-vm3v- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-119
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-32v7-ghpr-c8hg
Mishandling of format strings in ncurses
ncurses exposes functions from the ncurses library which:
- Pass buffers without length to C functions that may write an arbitrary amount of data, leading to a buffer overflow. (instr, mvwinstr, etc)
- Passes rust &str to strings expecting C format arguments, allowing hostile input to execute a format string attack, which trivially allows writing arbitrary data to stack memory (functions in the printw family).
- Record
GHSA-32v7-ghpr-c8hg- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N - Weakness
- CWE-134
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-g7r5-x7cr-vm3v
Buffer overflow and format vulnerabilities in ncurses
ncurses exposes functions from the ncurses library which:
- Pass buffers without length to C functions that may write an arbitrary amount of data, leading to a buffer overflow. (instr, mvwinstr, etc)
- Passes rust &str to strings expecting C format arguments, allowing hostile input to execute a format string attack, which trivially allows writing arbitrary data to stack memory (functions in the printw family).
- Record
GHSA-g7r5-x7cr-vm3v- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-119
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2019-15548
An issue was discovered in the ncurses crate through 5.99.0 for Rust. There are instr and mvwinstr buffer overflows because interaction with C functions is mishandled.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2019-15548- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVRUSTSEC-2019-0006 No score
Buffer overflow and format vulnerabilities in functions exposed without unsafe
ncurses exposes functions from the ncurses library which:
- Pass buffers without length to C functions that may write an arbitrary amount of
data, leading to a buffer overflow. (
instr,mvwinstr, etc) - Passes rust &str to strings expecting C format arguments, allowing hostile
input to execute a format string attack, which trivially allows writing
arbitrary data to stack memory (functions in the
printwfamily).
- Record
RUSTSEC-2019-0006- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
ncursescrates.io |
through 5.101.0 | None known |
ncursescrates.io From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
through 5.101.0 | None known |
ncursescrates.io From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
0.0.0-0 and later | None known |
rust-ncursesUbuntu:20.04:LTS |
All versions, plus listed versions 5.99.0-1 |
None known |
rust-ncursesUbuntu:22.04:LTS |
All versions, plus listed versions 5.99.0-3 |
None known |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| affected, facts | ||
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2019-15548 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.8) in Ncurses Project Ncurses, published June 15, 2019. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.62%, the 76th percentile. No source names a fixed version.