NASA CryptoLib up to 1.3.3 Crypto_TC_ProcessSecurity fl heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in NASA CryptoLib up to 1.3.3 and classified as critical. This impacts the function Crypto_TC_ProcessSecurity. Executing a manipulation of the argument fl can lead to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2025-29912. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. Applying a patch is advised to resolve this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in NASA CryptoLib up to 1.3.3. It has been declared as very critical. This vulnerability affects the function Crypto_TC_ProcessSecurity. The manipulation of the argument fl with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

CryptoLib provides a software-only solution using the CCSDS Space Data Link Security Protocol - Extended Procedures (SDLS-EP) to secure communications between a spacecraft running the core Flight System (cFS) and a ground station. In versions 1.3.3 and prior, an unsigned integer underflow in the `Crypto_TC_ProcessSecurity` function of CryptoLib leads to a heap buffer overflow. The vulnerability is triggered when the `fl` (frame length) field in a Telecommand (TC) packet is set to 0. This underflow causes the frame length to be interpreted as 65535, resulting in out-of-bounds memory access. This critical vulnerability can be exploited to cause a denial of service (DoS) or potentially achieve remote code execution. Users of CryptoLib are advised to apply the recommended patch or avoid processing untrusted TC packets until a fix is available.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-29912 since 03/12/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 03/18/2025).

Applying the patch ca39cb96f21e76102aefb956d2c8c0ba0bd143ca is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• NASA

Name

• CryptoLib

Version

• 1.3.0
• 1.3.1
• 1.3.2
• 1.3.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/nasa/CryptoLib/

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