Overview
The Common Vulnerability Exposure (CVE) archive has recently listed a new vulnerability, CVE-2024-53026, which poses significant risks to Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) users. This vulnerability allows unauthorized information disclosure when an invalid Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) packet is received during an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) call. It is a high-priority issue, as it could potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage. This blog post provides a detailed analysis of this vulnerability, its potential impacts, and the necessary steps to mitigate it.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2024-53026
Severity: High (CVSS 8.2)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Unauthorized information disclosure, potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
VoLTE | All prior to vendor patch
VoWiFi | All prior to vendor patch
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability exploits a flaw in the way VoLTE and VoWiFi handle RTCP packets during an IMS call. Specifically, when an invalid RTCP packet is received, it triggers a fault in the system that discloses sensitive information. This information could potentially be used to compromise the system or leak data.
While the exact details of how this exploit works are beyond the scope of this blog post, it’s worth noting that it does not require any specific user interaction or privileges. This means that any system not patched against this vulnerability is potentially at risk.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a
conceptual
example of a malicious RTCP packet that could potentially exploit this vulnerability:
POST /rtcp/packet HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-rtcp
{
"header": {
"version": 2,
"padding": false,
"reportCount": 0,
"packetType": 200,
"length": 1
},
"payload": "malicious_payload"
}This example shows a malformed RTCP packet with a malicious payload. When received by a vulnerable system, it could trigger the information disclosure vulnerability.
Mitigation
The most effective way to mitigate this vulnerability is to apply the most recent patch provided by your VoLTE or VoWiFi vendor. If a patch is not immediately available, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. These solutions can monitor and filter out malicious RTCP packets, thereby reducing the risk of exploitation. However, these should be seen as temporary solutions, and a vendor patch should be applied as soon as available.