CVE-2019-0676

Microsoft Internet Explorer Information Disclosure Vulnerability

Verified by Precogs Threat Research
Last Updated: May 23, 2022
Base Score
9.8CRITICAL

Executive Summary

CVE-2019-0676 is a critical severity vulnerability affecting binary-analysis. It is classified as an undisclosed flaw. This vulnerability is actively being exploited in the wild.

Precogs AI Insight

"This critical flaw stems from within An information disclosure vulnerability, allowing bypassed validation checks on external interactions. Adversaries commonly weaponize this defect by trigger a denial of service state, crashing critical operational components. The Precogs Binary SAST engine detects such memory corruption vulnerabilities to flag these architectural defects instantly."

Exploit Probability (EPSS)
Elevated (23.8%)
Public POC
Available
Exploit Probability
High (84%)
Public POC
Actively Exploited
Affected Assets
binary analysisNVD Database

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2019-0676 is categorized as a critical Buffer Overflow flaw. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

An information disclosure vulnerability exists when Internet Explorer improperly handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited this vul.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

MetricValue
CVSS Base Score9.8 (CRITICAL)
Vector StringCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
PublishedMay 23, 2022
Last ModifiedMay 23, 2022
Related CWEsN/A

Impact on Systems

Remote Code Execution: Attackers can overwrite the instruction pointer (EIP/RIP) to redirect execution to malicious shellcode.

Memory Corruption: Overwriting adjacent memory regions can corrupt critical application state, leading to unpredictable privilege escalation.

Denial of Service: Triggering segmentation faults and kernel panics results in immediate disruption of critical systems.

How to fix this issue?

Implement the following strategic mitigations immediately to eliminate the attack surface.

1. Memory-Safe Languages Where possible, migrate critical parsing logic to memory-safe languages like Rust or Go.

2. Safe Standard Libraries Replace unbounded C functions (strcpy, sprintf) with boundary-checking equivalents (strncpy, snprintf).

3. Compiler Defenses Ensure software is compiled with modern defensive flags: ASLR, DEP/NX, Stack Canaries (SSP), and Position Independent Executables (PIE).

Vulnerability Signature

// Vulnerable C Function
void parse_network_packet(char *untrusted_data) \{
    char local_buffer[128];
    // VULNERABLE: strcpy does not verify the length of the source data
    strcpy(local_buffer, untrusted_data);
    printf("Packet Processed.");
\}

// EXPLOIT PAYLOAD: 128 bytes of padding + [Overwrite EIP Address]

References and Sources

Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

StageDetail
SourceNetwork packet or file input
VectorData exceeds the allocated buffer bounds during a copy operation
Sinkstrcpy(), memcpy(), or pointer arithmetic
ImpactMemory corruption, Remote Code Execution (RCE)

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Memory Corruption
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[128];
    // Taint sink: copies without bounds checking
    strcpy(buffer, input);
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Bounded Memory Operations
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[128];
    // Sanitized boundary check
    strncpy(buffer, input, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
    buffer[sizeof(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs Binary SAST engine explicitly uncovers memory boundary violations and unsafe memory management functions in compiled binaries.\n

Is your system affected?

Precogs AI detects CVE-2019-0676 in compiled binaries, LLMs, and application layers — even without source code access.