CVE-2022-0695 in radare2
Summary
by MITRE • 02/24/2022
Denial of Service in GitHub repository radareorg/radare2 prior to 5.6.4.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/26/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-0695 represents a denial of service flaw affecting the radare2 reverse engineering framework maintained by radareorg. This issue exists within the repository prior to version 5.6.4 and specifically impacts the software's ability to process certain input data streams, leading to system instability and potential service interruption. The vulnerability manifests when the framework encounters malformed or specially crafted input during analysis operations, causing unexpected termination or resource exhaustion that prevents normal operational functionality.
Technical analysis reveals that the flaw stems from inadequate input validation mechanisms within the binary analysis components of radare2. The software fails to properly handle malformed data structures or unexpected input sequences during the parsing of various file formats and memory regions. This weakness allows an attacker to craft specific input payloads that trigger memory corruption or infinite loop conditions within the processing pipeline, effectively consuming system resources or causing the application to crash. The vulnerability operates at the level of data parsing and analysis rather than network communication, making it particularly concerning for security researchers and analysts who rely on radare2 for critical forensic operations.
The operational impact of CVE-2022-0695 extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise the integrity of security analysis workflows. Security professionals utilizing radare2 for malware analysis, binary reverse engineering, or vulnerability research may find their tools becoming unresponsive or crashing when processing malicious samples or corrupted binaries. This disruption can halt critical security investigations and create delays in threat analysis processes. The vulnerability particularly affects automated analysis systems that rely on radare2 for batch processing of files, where a single malicious input could cause cascading failures across multiple analysis jobs. Organizations depending on radare2 for security operations may experience significant downtime during analysis phases, affecting incident response timelines and forensic capabilities.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily focus on immediate software updates to version 5.6.4 or later, which contains patches addressing the input validation deficiencies. System administrators should implement comprehensive patch management procedures to ensure all instances of radare2 are updated across organizational environments. Additional protective measures include implementing input sanitization at the system level, deploying network segmentation to limit exposure, and establishing monitoring protocols to detect unusual resource consumption patterns. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes denial of service flaws related to resource exhaustion, and may map to ATT&CK technique T1499 for resource hijacking. Organizations should also consider implementing sandboxing mechanisms for processing untrusted binary data and maintaining backup analysis environments to minimize operational disruption during patch deployment cycles.