Vulnary
← back to the feed
Critical· 9.8

CVE-2017-10684

A critical flaw in ncurses 6.0 allows attackers to run arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. The bug is triggered by a specially crafted input that overflows a stack buffer. It can be exploited remotely without any user interaction.

publishedJun 29, 2017
last modifiedJul 23, 2026
sourcesNVD
severity · cvss
9.8
critical · how bad it is
exploitation · epss
5%
91th percentile · chance of exploitation in 30 days
(ai-assisted) A model wrote this summary from the official data, so double-check it against the source before you act on it. Read the official advisory →
auto-deletes from the system
counting…on Sep 6, 2026

No official fix yet. If none appears within 45 days of first tracking, this entry is removed automatically.

01

Who is affected

The vulnerable software is the invisible‑island ncurses library, version 6.0.

02

Real-world impact

An attacker who can send crafted data to the vulnerable ncurses instance can execute any code they choose on the target machine, potentially taking full control of the system.

03

Why this severity

The CVSS score of 9.8 reflects that the attack can be launched over the network (AV:N), requires no special privileges (PR:N), needs no user interaction (UI:N), and gives the attacker complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H).

04

What to do about it

no official fix yet

No official fix or mitigation is documented in the sources yet. Monitor the vendor advisory and apply the patch as soon as it is released.

No fix documented in sources

05

Timeline

  1. Jun 29, 2017 · Jun 29, 2017
    Published
    Disclosed and added to the National Vulnerability Database.
  2. Jul 23, 2026 · 14d ago
    Advisory updated
    The NVD record was last revised.
06

How it’s attacked

Attack vectorNetwork (remote)
Attack complexityLow
Privileges requiredNone
User interactionNone needed
ScopeUnchanged
Confidentiality impactHigh
Integrity impactHigh
Availability impactHigh
07

References & advisories

(ai-assisted) A model wrote this summary from the official data, so double-check it against the source before you act on it. Read the official advisory →