Nanopb up to 0.4.9.0 pb_decode_ex memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in Nanopb up to 0.4.9.0. This vulnerability affects the function pb_decode_ex. Such manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2024-53984. The attack can be launched remotely. No exploit exists. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Nanopb up to 0.4.9.0. Affected by this issue is the function pb_decode_ex. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

Nanopb is a small code-size Protocol Buffers implementation. When the compile time option PB_ENABLE_MALLOC is enabled, the message contains at least one field with FT_POINTER field type, custom stream callback is used with unknown stream length. and the pb_decode_ex() function is used with flag PB_DECODE_DELIMITED, then the pb_decode_ex() function does not automatically call pb_release(), like is done for other failure cases. This could lead to memory leak and potential denial-of-service. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.4.9.1.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2024-53984 since 11/26/2024. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 212348 (openSUSE 15 Security Update : nanopb (openSUSE-SU-2024:0400-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 0.4.9.1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2b86c255aa52250438d5aba124d0e86db495b378 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (212348). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• Nanopb

Version

• 0.4.0
• 0.4.1
• 0.4.2
• 0.4.3
• 0.4.4
• 0.4.5
• 0.4.6
• 0.4.7
• 0.4.8
• 0.4.9.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/nanopb/nanopb/

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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