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GHSA-w5w5-8vfh-xcjq

whoami stack buffer overflow on several Unix platforms

8.2 HighFix available

GHSA-w5w5-8vfh-xcjq is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.2) in whoami, published February 28, 2024. No source lists public exploit code. Fixed in whoami 1.5.0.

What does this mean?
Severity
8.2 HighCVSS 3.1, GitHub Advisories
Exploit chance
UnscoredNo EPSS score yet
Exploitation
None knownNot on CISA’s or ENISA’s lists
Fixed in
1.5.0whoami

Description

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.5.0, calling any of these functions leads to an immediate stack buffer overflow on illumos and Solaris:

  • whoami::username
  • whoami::realname
  • whoami::username_os
  • whoami::realname_os

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.0.1, calling any of the above functions also leads to a stack buffer overflow on these platforms:

  • Bitrig
  • DragonFlyBSD
  • FreeBSD
  • NetBSD
  • OpenBSD

This occurs because of an incorrect definition of the passwd struct on those platforms.

As a result of this issue, denial of service and data corruption have both been observed in the wild. The issue is possibly exploitable as well.

This vulnerability also affects other Unix platforms that aren't Linux or macOS.

This issue has been addressed in whoami 1.5.0.

For more information, see this GitHub issue.

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
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
High

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
whoami
crates.io
0.5.3 up to 1.5.0
1.5.0

What each source reports

GitHub Advisories Score used8.2

whoami stack buffer overflow on several Unix platforms

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.5.0, calling any of these functions leads to an immediate stack buffer overflow on illumos and Solaris:

  • whoami::username
  • whoami::realname
  • whoami::username_os
  • whoami::realname_os

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.0.1, calling any of the above functions also leads to a stack buffer overflow on these platforms:

  • Bitrig
  • DragonFlyBSD
  • FreeBSD
  • NetBSD
  • OpenBSD

This occurs because of an incorrect definition of the passwd struct on those platforms.

As a result of this issue, denial of service and data corruption have both been observed in the wild. The issue is possibly exploitable as well.

This vulnerability also affects other Unix platforms that aren't Linux or macOS.

This issue has been addressed in whoami 1.5.0.

For more information, see this GitHub issue.

Record
GHSA-w5w5-8vfh-xcjq
CVSS 3.1
8.2 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Weakness
CWE-121
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV8.2

whoami stack buffer overflow on several Unix platforms

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.5.0, calling any of these functions leads to an immediate stack buffer overflow on illumos and Solaris:

  • whoami::username
  • whoami::realname
  • whoami::username_os
  • whoami::realname_os

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.0.1, calling any of the above functions also leads to a stack buffer overflow on these platforms:

  • Bitrig
  • DragonFlyBSD
  • FreeBSD
  • NetBSD
  • OpenBSD

This occurs because of an incorrect definition of the passwd struct on those platforms.

As a result of this issue, denial of service and data corruption have both been observed in the wild. The issue is possibly exploitable as well.

This vulnerability also affects other Unix platforms that aren't Linux or macOS.

This issue has been addressed in whoami 1.5.0.

For more information, see this GitHub issue.

Record
GHSA-w5w5-8vfh-xcjq
CVSS 3.1
8.2 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Weakness
CWE-121
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVRUSTSEC-2024-0020No score

Stack buffer overflow with whoami on several Unix platforms

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.5.0, calling any of these functions leads to an immediate stack buffer overflow on illumos and Solaris:

  • whoami::username
  • whoami::realname
  • whoami::username_os
  • whoami::realname_os

With versions of the whoami crate >= 0.5.3 and < 1.0.1, calling any of the above functions also leads to a stack buffer overflow on these platforms:

  • Bitrig
  • DragonFlyBSD
  • FreeBSD
  • NetBSD
  • OpenBSD

This occurs because of an incorrect definition of the passwd struct on those platforms.

As a result of this issue, denial of service and data corruption have both been observed in the wild. The issue is possibly exploitable as well.

This vulnerability also affects other Unix platforms that aren't Linux or macOS.

This issue has been addressed in whoami 1.5.0.

For more information, see this GitHub issue.

Record
RUSTSEC-2024-0020
Updated
2026-11-02

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
first indexedGitHub Advisories, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

References

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