Critical
Security advisory
Ruby before 2.4.2, 2.3.5, and 2.2.8 is vulnerable to a malicious format string which contains a precious specifier (*) with a huge minus value. Such situation can lead to a buffer overrun, resulting in a heap memory corruption or an information disclosure from the heap.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2017-0898
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 05:39 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
Ruby before 2.4.2, 2.3.5, and 2.2.8 is vulnerable to a malicious format string which contains a precious specifier (*) with a huge minus value. Such situation can lead to a buffer overrun, resulting in a heap memory corruption or an information disclosure from the heap.
osv:CVE-2017-0898
Complete source record
{
"id": "19f87a8810efefd08b86b4f2aa4a8353e1e071794c6895f090ee7d8d4f2342ff",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-0898",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2017-0898",
"summary": "Ruby before 2.4.2, 2.3.5, and 2.2.8 is vulnerable to a malicious format string which contains a precious specifier (*) with a huge minus value. Such situation can lead to a buffer overrun, resulting in a heap memory corruption or an information disclosure from the heap.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2017-0898",
"products": [],
"severity": "critical",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2017-0898",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2017-0898"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/ruby/ruby",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "7393bf6a5cfff63683f36535e293caaa0d4c5be0"
},
{
"last_affected": "820605ba3c10b9f4dafc4e5d6e09765b8b31cbea"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.2"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.2"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.3"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.3"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.4"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.4"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.5"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.5"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.6"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.6"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.2.7"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.2.7"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.3.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.3.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.3.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.3.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.3.2"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.3.2"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.3.3"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.3.3"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.3.4"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.3.4"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.4.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.4.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "2.4.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "2.4.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"2.2.0",
"2.2.1",
"2.2.2",
"2.2.3",
"2.2.4",
"2.2.5",
"2.2.6",
"2.2.7",
"2.3.0",
"2.3.1",
"2.3.2",
"2.3.3",
"2.3.4",
"2.4.0",
"2.4.1"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2017-0898.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-24T10:30:31.886720664Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/07/msg00012.html",
"https://usn.ubuntu.com/3685-1/",
"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:3485",
"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0378",
"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0583",
"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0585",
"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201710-18",
"https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-4031",
"https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2017/09/14/sprintf-buffer-underrun-cve-2017-0898/",
"https://github.com/mruby/mruby/issues/3722",
"https://hackerone.com/reports/212241"
],
"provider_metadata": {}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2017-0898",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 432897,
"published_at": "2017-09-15T19:29:00.19+00:00"
}