Security advisory
A buffer overflow in the fribidi_get_par_embedding_levels_ex() function in lib/fribidi-bidi.c of GNU FriBidi through 1.0.7 allows an attacker to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code by delivering crafted text content to a user, when this content is then rendered by an application that uses FriBidi for text layout calculations. Examples include any GNOME or GTK+ based application that uses Pango for text layout, as this internally uses FriBidi for bidirectional text layout. For example, the attacker can construct a crafted text file to be opened in GEdit, or a crafted IRC message to be viewed in HexChat.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2019-18397
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 12:29 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
A buffer overflow in the fribidi_get_par_embedding_levels_ex() function in lib/fribidi-bidi.c of GNU FriBidi through 1.0.7 allows an attacker to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code by delivering crafted text content to a user, when this content is then rendered by an application that uses FriBidi for text layout calculations. Examples include any GNOME or GTK+ based application that uses Pango for text layout, as this internally uses FriBidi for bidirectional text layout. For example, the attacker can construct a crafted text file to be opened in GEdit, or a crafted IRC message to be viewed in HexChat.
osv:CVE-2019-18397
Complete source record
{
"id": "5e6e7450f43253d5f0cb2aaa846df801ecf7fe0a4f38391295d0d0d2f3dd66d1",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-18397",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2019-18397",
"summary": "A buffer overflow in the fribidi_get_par_embedding_levels_ex() function in lib/fribidi-bidi.c of GNU FriBidi through 1.0.7 allows an attacker to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code by delivering crafted text content to a user, when this content is then rendered by an application that uses FriBidi for text layout calculations. Examples include any GNOME or GTK+ based application that uses Pango for text layout, as this internally uses FriBidi for bidirectional text layout. For example, the attacker can construct a crafted text file to be opened in GEdit, or a crafted IRC message to be viewed in HexChat.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2019-18397",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2019-18397",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2019-18397"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/fribidi/fribidi",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "d18badec88bca8f6f4149156ebe7f1c6467a7bd8"
},
{
"last_affected": "aac3845708969b9c4bc2874edc4950123595b1b4"
},
{
"fixed": "034c6e9a1d296286305f4cfd1e0072b879f52568"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:gnu:fribidi:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "1.0.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "1.0.7"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"range": [
{
"fixed": "034c6e9a1d296286305f4cfd1e0072b879f52568"
}
],
"source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
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"v1.0.6",
"v1.0.5",
"v1.0.4",
"v1.0.3",
"v1.0.2",
"v1.0.1",
"v1.0.0"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2019-18397.json",
"vanir_signatures": [
{
"id": "CVE-2019-18397-a4060ad7",
"digest": {
"threshold": 0.9,
"line_hashes": [
"81998630060188356797033002215980650049",
"157692335296880058587528312676677773649",
"254617841547356102856284239003018292264",
"64856564019526216929120098957523904441"
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},
"source": "https://github.com/fribidi/fribidi/commit/034c6e9a1d296286305f4cfd1e0072b879f52568",
"target": {
"file": "lib/fribidi-bidi.c"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Line",
"signature_version": "v1"
},
{
"id": "CVE-2019-18397-dd25e494",
"digest": {
"length": 12887,
"function_hash": "306583254731306983363013813531174641007"
},
"source": "https://github.com/fribidi/fribidi/commit/034c6e9a1d296286305f4cfd1e0072b879f52568",
"target": {
"file": "lib/fribidi-bidi.c",
"function": "fribidi_get_par_embedding_levels_ex"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Function",
"signature_version": "v1"
}
],
"vanir_signatures_modified": "2026-10-20T13:42:12Z"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-20T13:42:12.153522860Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TFS3N6KKXPI6ATDNEUFRSLX7R6BOBNIP/",
"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/W5UJRTG32FDNI7T637Q6PZYL3UCRR5HR/",
"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:4326",
"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:4361",
"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2020:0291",
"https://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=157322128105807&w=2",
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-18397",
"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-41",
"https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=944327",
"https://github.com/fribidi/fribidi/commit/034c6e9a1d296286305f4cfd1e0072b879f52568"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "debian:debian_linux",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "10.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "10.0"
},
{
"introduced": "8.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "8.0"
},
{
"introduced": "9.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "9.0"
},
{
"introduced": "10.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "10.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
]
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2019-18397",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 387973,
"published_at": "2019-11-13T14:15:10.287+00:00"
}