printf floating point buffer overflow

Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2016-9586

curl before version 7.52.0 is vulnerable to a buffer overflow when doing a large floating point output in libcurl's implementation of the printf() functions. If there are any application that accepts a format string from the outside without necessary input filtering, it could allow remote attacks.

Open Source Vulnerabilities CURL-CVE-2016-9586

libcurl's implementation of the printf() functions triggers a buffer overflow when doing a large floating point output. The bug occurs when the conversion outputs more than 255 bytes. The flaw happens because the floating point conversion is using system functions without the correct boundary checks. The functions have been documented as deprecated for a long time and users are discouraged from using them in "new programs" as they are planned to get removed at a future point. Since the functions are present and there is nothing preventing users from using them, we expect there to be a certain amount of existing users in the wild. If there are any application that accepts a format string from the outside without necessary input filtering, it could allow remote attacks. This flaw does not exist in the command line tool.