CVE-2013-4237
glibc: Buffer overwrite when using readdir_r on file systems returning file names longer than NAME_MAX characters
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 2.0
Review impact separately from score.
Published · August 11, 2013
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way the glibc's readdir_r() function handled file system entries longer than the NAME_MAX character constant. A remote attacker could provide a specially crafted NTFS or CIFS file system that, when processed by an application using readdir_r(), would cause that application to crash or, potentially, allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application.
Statement
This issue affects the versions of glibc as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. This issue is not planned to be fixed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 as it is now in Production 3 Phase of the support and maintenance life cycle, https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
Do not open untrusted filesystem image files on production systems.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 2.0 · 6.8AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
CWE-787 · Out-of-bounds Write