CVE-2023-49122: Critical Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in Solid Edge SE2023

Overview

A critical vulnerability, designated as CVE-2023-49122, has been identified in the popular CAD software, Solid Edge SE2023. This vulnerability primarily affects all versions of Solid Edge SE2023 prior to the V223.0 Update 10. The vulnerability is of critical concern as it allows a potential attacker to cause a heap-based buffer overflow, thereby enabling them to execute code in the context of the current process. This could potentially lead to a compromise of the system, or in some cases, data leakage, posing significant threats to both individual users and organizations.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2023-49122
Severity: High (CVSS: 7.8)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Solid Edge SE2023 | All versions < V223.0 Update 10 How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability stems from the way Solid Edge SE2023 parses PAR files. An attacker could craft a malicious PAR file that, when loaded by the application, causes a heap-based buffer overflow. This happens because the application fails to properly validate the input data size against the buffer size, allowing an attacker to overwrite the allocated buffer. The overwritten buffer can contain executable code, which is then run in the context of the current process.

Conceptual Example Code

In a real-world scenario, the attacker would craft a malicious PAR file. The following pseudocode provides a conceptual overview of how this might be done:

# Pseudocode to create a malicious PAR file
buffer_size = 512
malicious_payload = "A" * (buffer_size + 1)  # overflow the buffer by one byte
file = open("malicious.par", "w")
file.write(malicious_payload)
file.close()

Upon opening this malicious PAR file with Solid Edge SE2023, the application would suffer a heap-based buffer overflow, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.

Mitigation Measures

Users of Solid Edge SE2023 are strongly advised to update their software to V223.0 Update 10 or later as soon as possible, which contains a patch for this vulnerability. In the interim, users can utilize Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) or Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) to mitigate the risk. However, these are temporary solutions and do not provide complete protection against the exploit.