CVE-2010-3054 in FreeType
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in FreeType 2.3.9, and other versions before 2.4.2, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via vectors involving nested Standard Encoding Accented Character (aka seac) calls, related to psaux.h, cffgload.c, cffgload.h, and t1decode.c.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/23/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-3054 represents a critical denial of service weakness within the FreeType font rendering library affecting versions prior to 2.4.2. This issue specifically targets the processing of PostScript Type 1 and OpenType fonts through the handling of nested Standard Encoding Accented Character (seac) calls. The flaw exists in the core font parsing components including psaux.h, cffgload.c, cffgload.h, and t1decode.c files, which are responsible for interpreting and rendering font data in applications that utilize FreeType for typography rendering. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and recursive call handling within the font decoding routines, creating a potential for stack exhaustion through maliciously crafted font files.
The technical nature of this vulnerability falls under CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and more specifically relates to CWE-400, indicating unrestricted resource consumption. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting font files containing deeply nested seac operations that trigger recursive processing within the FreeType library. When applications attempt to render these malicious fonts, the recursive calls consume excessive stack memory without proper bounds checking, eventually leading to stack exhaustion and application crash. This behavior manifests as a denial of service condition where legitimate users cannot access font rendering functionality, effectively disrupting applications that depend on FreeType for text display.
The operational impact of CVE-2010-3054 extends across numerous software domains that utilize FreeType for font handling including web browsers, office suites, desktop publishing applications, and mobile operating systems. The vulnerability affects any application that processes external font files without proper sanitization, making it particularly dangerous in web environments where users may unknowingly encounter malicious font content. This weakness aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203, which covers exploitation of software vulnerabilities for denial of service attacks, and can be leveraged in supply chain attacks where compromised font files are distributed through legitimate channels. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers can trigger the condition from outside the target system, making it a significant risk for applications processing untrusted font content.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2010-3054 primarily focus on upgrading to FreeType version 2.4.2 or later, which includes proper bounds checking and recursion limits for seac processing. System administrators should implement font sanitization procedures, particularly for web applications and email clients that process external font content. Additionally, applications should employ sandboxing techniques and memory limits when processing font files to prevent stack exhaustion attacks. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation in font processing libraries and highlights the need for comprehensive testing of font parsing components against malicious inputs. Organizations should also consider implementing network-level filtering to prevent the transmission of potentially malicious font files and establish regular patching schedules to address similar vulnerabilities in font rendering libraries.