Cesanta Mongoose 6.13 MQTT Parser parse_mqtt MQTT SUBSCRIBE Packet out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Cesanta Mongoose 6.13. This affects the function parse_mqtt of the component MQTT Parser. Such manipulation as part of MQTT SUBSCRIBE Packet leads to out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2018-18764. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Cesanta Mongoose 6.13 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function parse_mqtt of the component MQTT Parser. The manipulation as part of a MQTT SUBSCRIBE Packet leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

An exploitable arbitrary memory read vulnerability exists in the MQTT packet-parsing functionality of Cesanta Mongoose 6.13. It is a heap-based buffer over-read in a parse_mqtt getu16 call. A specially crafted MQTT SUBSCRIBE packet can cause an arbitrary out-of-bounds memory read potentially resulting in information disclosure and denial of service. An attacker needs to send a specially crafted MQTT packet over the network to trigger this vulnerability.

The bug was discovered 10/25/2018. The weakness was presented 10/28/2018 (Website). The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2018-18764 since 10/28/2018. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 4 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

See VDB-126069 for similar entry. Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Cesanta

Name

• Mongoose

Version

• 6.13

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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