Overview
This report provides a detailed analysis of a high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2024-21909, discovered in PeterO.Cbor versions 4.0.0 to 4.5.0. The vulnerability can be exploited by attackers to trigger a Denial of Service (DoS) condition, potentially compromising systems or leading to data leakage. Due to the widespread usage of this library, it poses a significant risk to numerous systems and applications.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2024-21909
Severity: High (CVSS: 7.5)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
PeterO.Cbor | 4.0.0 through 4.5.0
How the Exploit Works
The exploit works by an attacker providing crafted data to the DecodeFromBytes or other decoding mechanisms in the PeterO.Cbor library. This data can trigger a Denial of Service (DoS) condition, potentially causing a system crash or compromise. As the library does not require authentication, the attacker can be remote and unauthenticated.
Conceptual Example Code
A conceptual example of exploiting this vulnerability might look like this. Please note that this is a simplified representation of an attack and actual malicious payloads would be more complex.
POST /decodeFromBytes HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable-site.com
Content-Type: application/cbor
{ "malicious_data": "<crafted_data>" }In this example, `
Mitigation
It is highly recommended to apply the vendor patch as soon as possible. If immediate patching is not possible, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation strategy. These systems can be configured to detect and block malicious payloads that aim to exploit this vulnerability.
