CVE-2019-17042
CWE-20Published: October 7, 2019· Updated: Jun 17, 2026
Official Description
An issue was discovered in Rsyslog v8.1908.0. contrib/pmcisconames/pmcisconames.c has a heap overflow in the parser for Cisco log messages. The parser tries to locate a log message delimiter (in this case, a space or a colon), but fails to account for strings that do not satisfy this constraint. If the string does not match, then the variable lenMsg will reach the value zero and will skip the sanity check that detects invalid log messages. The message will then be considered valid, and the parser will eat up the nonexistent colon delimiter. In doing so, it will decrement lenMsg, a signed integer, whose value was zero and now becomes minus one. The following step in the parser is to shift left the contents of the message. To do this, it will call memmove with the right pointers to the target and destination strings, but the lenMsg will now be interpreted as a huge value, causing a heap overflow.
Technical Analysis
CVE-2019-17042 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.
The vulnerability requires no privileges and no user interaction, making it a prime target for automated exploitation campaigns and worm-like propagation.
A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 9.8.
CVSS v3.1 Vector Breakdown
Affected Vendors & Products
Exploit & PoC Resources
Official Patches & Advisories
All References (14)
Quick Facts
Related CVEs (CWE-20)
Recommended Actions
- →Apply vendor patches immediately
- →Monitor CVE-2019-17042 in threat intel feeds
- →Review IDS/IPS signatures for exploitation attempts