CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-29573 — Gnu Glibc security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

sysdeps/i386/ldbl2mpn.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) before 2.23 on x86 targets has a stack-based buffer overflow if the input to any of the printf family of functions is an 80-bit long double with a non-canonical bit pattern, as seen when passing a \x00\x04\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x04 value to sprintf. NOTE: the issue does not affect glibc by default in 2016 or later (i.e., 2.23 or later) because of commits made in 2015 for inlining of C99 math functions through use of GCC built-ins. In other words, the reference to 2.23 is intentional despite the mention of "Fixed for glibc 2.33" in the 26649 reference.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2020-12-06
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-787

Affected products

  • gnu / glibc
  • redhat / enterprise_linux / 7.0
  • netapp / cloud_backup
  • netapp / solidfire_baseboard_management_controller

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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