nasm: Recursive calls in the function expr resulting in a denial of service
Published Jan 15, 2019
5.5
MEDIUMCVSS 3.0
EPSS 1.27%
Description
An issue was discovered in the function expr6 in eval.c in Netwide Assembler (NASM) through 2.14.02. There is a stack exhaustion problem caused by the expr6 function making recursive calls to itself in certain scenarios involving lots of '!' or '+' or '-' characters. Remote attackers could leverage this vulnerability to cause a denial-of-service via a crafted asm file.
Affected products
No data.
- ≤ 2.14.02
No data.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
nasm
Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
nasm
Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
nasm
Fix deferred
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | nasm | Out of support scope | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | nasm | Out of support scope | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | nasm | Fix deferred | n/a |
No package ranges for this CVE.
Remediation
Red Hat statement
This issue affects the versions of nasm as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7, and 8. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is now in Extended Life Phase of the support and maintenance life cycle. This issue is not currently planned to be addressed in future updates. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is now in Maintenance Support 2 Phase of the support and maintenance life cycle. This has been rated as having a security impact of Low, and is not currently planned to be addressed in future updates. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/.
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0 score for this CVE.
No CVSS v3.1 score for this CVE.
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
No CISA SSVC assessment for this CVE yet.
Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 4, 2026.
Score over time
2021-2026- EPSS v1
- EPSS v5
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
Percentile over time
- EPSS v1
- EPSS v5
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
Table of values (12 key points)
Flat stretches are collapsed. Showing up to 120 newest points.
| Date | Score | Percentile | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 4, 2026 | 1.27% (0.01272) | 68.87th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Aug 23, 2026 | 1.95% (0.01954) | 78.48th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jul 20, 2024 | 0.08% (0.00078) | 33.75th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Apr 29, 2024 | 0.08% (0.00078) | 32.39th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 15, 2024 | 0.07% (0.00075) | 30.39th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Feb 8, 2024 | 0.07% (0.00068) | 27.26th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 7, 2023 | 0.10% (0.00100) | 39.72th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 6, 2023 | 1.05% (0.01055) | 52.13th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Apr 1, 2022 | 1.05% (0.01055) | 48.43th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Jan 6, 2022 | 2.30% (0.02304) | 53.25th | v1 |
| Jan 5, 2022 | 0.52% (0.00523) | 33.47th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Apr 14, 2021 | 0.52% (0.00523) | 0.00th | v1 |
References (5)
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-6291 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.nasm.us/show_bug.cgi?id=3392549 x_refsource_MISCExploitIssue TrackingVendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1668321 Issue Tracking
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-6291
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-6291
| Link | Providers | Tags |
|---|---|---|
| https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-6291 | Vendor Advisory | |
| https://bugzilla.nasm.us/show_bug.cgi?id=3392549 | x_refsource_MISCExploitIssue TrackingVendor Advisory | |
| https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1668321 | Issue Tracking | |
| https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-6291 | ||
| https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-6291 |
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.