gmrtd up to 0.17.1 NFC allocation of resources

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in gmrtd up to 0.17.1. It has been classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component NFC Handler. The manipulation leads to allocation of resources. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2026-24738. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in gmrtd up to 0.17.1. This issue affects an unknown code block of the component NFC Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a allocation of resources vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-770. The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

gmrtd is a Go library for reading Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs). Prior to version 0.17.2, ReadFile accepts TLVs with lengths that can range up to 4GB, which can cause unconstrained resource consumption in both memory and cpu cycles. ReadFile can consume an extended TLV with lengths well outside what would be available in ICs. It can accept something all the way up to 4GB which would take too many iterations in 256 byte chunks, and would also try to allocate memory that might not be available in constrained environments like phones. Or if an API sends data to ReadFile, the same problem applies. The very small chunked read also locks the goroutine in accepting data for a very large number of iterations. projects using the gmrtd library to read files from NFCs can experience extreme slowdowns or memory consumption. A malicious NFC can just behave like the mock transceiver described above and by just sending dummy bytes as each chunk to be read, can make the receiving thread unresponsive and fill up memory on the host system. Version 0.17.2 patches the issue.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-24738 since 01/26/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1499 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 0.17.2 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at github.com. Applying the patch 54469a95e5a20a8602ac1457b2110bfeb80c8891 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.

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Productinfo

Name

• gmrtd

Version

• 0.17.0
• 0.17.1

License

• open-source

Website

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

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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