CVE-2020-28362 in Google
Summary
by MITRE • 11/18/2020
Go before 1.14.12 and 1.15.x before 1.15.4 allows Denial of Service.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/08/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-28362 represents a denial of service flaw affecting the go programming language runtime environment. This issue specifically impacts versions prior to 1.14.12 and 1.15.4, creating a significant risk for systems relying on go applications. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of certain input conditions within the runtime's memory management and garbage collection mechanisms, which can lead to system instability and complete service disruption.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in how the go runtime processes specific memory allocation patterns and garbage collection cycles. When malicious or malformed input triggers particular sequences in the runtime's memory management subsystem, it can cause the garbage collector to enter an infinite loop or consume excessive resources. This behavior manifests as unresponsive applications or complete system hangs, effectively rendering the affected services unavailable to legitimate users. The flaw operates at the core level of the go runtime, making it particularly dangerous as it can affect any application built with vulnerable go versions regardless of the application's specific implementation.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for organizations deploying go-based applications in production environments. The denial of service impact means that attackers can potentially bring down entire services or applications by sending carefully crafted input that triggers the problematic runtime behavior. The vulnerability's exploitation does not require authentication or special privileges, making it particularly attractive to threat actors seeking to disrupt services. Organizations using go applications in critical infrastructure, web services, or enterprise environments face significant exposure, as even a single vulnerable instance can compromise overall system availability and reliability.
Security professionals should prioritize immediate remediation by upgrading to go versions 1.14.12 or 1.15.4, which contain the necessary patches to address the memory handling issues. Additionally, implementing monitoring solutions to detect unusual memory consumption patterns or garbage collection behavior can help identify potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes unchecked resource consumption as a significant security concern, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service. Organizations should also consider implementing application sandboxing and resource limits to mitigate potential impact if exploitation occurs, while maintaining comprehensive logging to track runtime behavior and identify anomalous patterns that might indicate attempted exploitation.