Medium
PX4-Autopilot Heap Buffer Overflow Bug
Type: advisorySources: OSV
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.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2023-46256
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 4 Nov 2026, 09:08 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
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.
osv:CVE-2023-46256
Complete source record
{
"id": "c2b7a91147b155de448f53476a576e22613132a07771bc9257afba84ffbcd5ef",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-46256",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "PX4-Autopilot Heap Buffer Overflow Bug",
"summary": "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.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2023-46256",
"products": [],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2023-46256",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2023-46256",
"GHSA-5hvv-q2r5-rppw"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:L"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/px4/px4-autopilot",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "1c8ab2a0d7db2d14a6f320ebd8766b5ffaea28fa"
},
{
"introduced": "c5dc1221b68352725630cbda5c04bc0f5c3c1617"
},
{
"last_affected": "5359fe59e507896dace176d7fd8f9b0d00c2e3b6"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:dronecode:px4_drone_autopilot:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "1.13.3"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:dronecode:px4_drone_autopilot:1.14.0:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "1.14.0-beta1"
},
{
"last_affected": "1.14.0-beta1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:dronecode:px4_drone_autopilot:1.14.0:beta2:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "1.14.0-beta2"
},
{
"last_affected": "1.14.0-beta2"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:dronecode:px4_drone_autopilot:1.14.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "1.14.0-rc1"
},
{
"last_affected": "1.14.0-rc1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"1.14.0-beta1",
"1.14.0-beta2",
"1.14.0-rc1",
"v1.14.0-rc1",
"v1.13.3",
"v1.14.0-beta2",
"v1.14.0-beta1",
"v1.13.2",
"v1.13.1",
"v1.13.0",
"v1.13.0-rc1",
"v1.13.0-beta2",
"v1.13.0-beta1",
"v1.12.0-rc1",
"v1.12.0",
"v1.13.0-alpha1",
"v1.12.0-beta6",
"v1.12.0-beta5",
"v1.12.0-beta4",
"v1.12.0-beta3",
"v1.12.0-beta2",
"v1.11.0-rc3",
"v1.11.0-rc2",
"v1.11.0-rc1",
"v1.11.0-beta2",
"v1.11.0-beta1",
"v1.10.0-beta4",
"v1.10.0-beta3",
"v1.10.0-beta2",
"v1.10.0-beta1",
"v1.9.0-rc2",
"v1.9.0",
"v1.9.0-rc1",
"v1.9.0-rc0",
"v1.9.0-beta3",
"v1.9.0-beta2",
"v1.9.0-beta1",
"v1.9.0-alpha",
"v1.8.0",
"v1.8.0-rc0",
"v1.8.0-beta2",
"v1.8.0-beta1",
"v1.7.4beta",
"v1.7.3",
"v1.7.3beta",
"v1.7.2",
"v1.7.1",
"v1.7.0",
"v1.7.0-rc4",
"v1.7.0-rc3",
"v1.7.0-rc2",
"v1.7.0-rc1",
"v1.7.0-rc0",
"v1.6.5",
"v1.6.4",
"v1.6.2",
"v1.6.0-rc4",
"v1.6.0-rc3",
"v1.6.0-rc2",
"v1.6.0rc1",
"v1.5.2",
"v1.5.1",
"v1.5.1rc4",
"v1.5.1rc3",
"v1.5.1rc2",
"v1.5.0",
"v1.4.4rc1",
"v1.4.3",
"v1.4.2",
"v1.4.1",
"v1.4.1rc4",
"v1.4.1rc3",
"v1.4.1rc2",
"v1.4.1rc1",
"v1.4.0rc4",
"v1.4.0rc3",
"v1.4.0rc2",
"v1.4.0rc1",
"v1.3.2",
"v1.3.0rc3",
"v1.3.0rc2",
"v1.3.0rc1",
"v1.1.3",
"v1.1.2",
"v1.1.1",
"v1.1.0beta3",
"v1.1.0beta1",
"v1.0.0beta2",
"v1.0.0rc12",
"v1.0.0rc9",
"v1.0.0rc10",
"v1.0.0rc8",
"v1.0.0rc7",
"v1.0.0-rc3",
"v1.0.0-rc2",
"v1.0.0-rc1"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-46256.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:34.246264203Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/drivers/distance_sensor/lightware_laser_serial/parser.cpp#L87",
"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/46xxx/CVE-2023-46256.json",
"https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/security/advisories/GHSA-5hvv-q2r5-rppw",
"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-46256"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-120",
"CWE-122"
],
"cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/46xxx/CVE-2023-46256.json"
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2023-46256",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 501333,
"published_at": "2023-10-31T15:29:05.943+00:00"
}