# CVE-2019-6138: Denial of service in n/a

> Memory leaks in libIEC61850 allow attackers to exhaust system resources, causing denial of service in industrial control systems.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 11 Jan 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6p4p-492r-v39v

## What is CVE-2019-6138?

CVE-2019-6138 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 11 Jan 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue has been found in libIEC61850 v1.3.1. Memory_malloc and Memory_calloc in hal/memory/lib_memory.c have memory leaks when called from mms/iso_mms/common/mms_value.c, server/mms_mapping/mms_mapping.c, and server/mms_mapping/mms_sv.c (via common/string_utilities.c), as demonstrated by iec61850_9_2_LE_example.c.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-6138?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mz-Automation Libiec61850.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-6138?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-6138 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-6138 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-6138 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2022-2970](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-2970/): MZ Automation libIEC61850 Stack-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2022-2972](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-2972/): MZ Automation libIEC61850 Stack-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2024-45970](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45970/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-45971](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45971/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-19185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-19185/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-6138 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-6138 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 11 Jan 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-6138 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-6138/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-6138/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-6138
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-6138
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-6138

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-6138/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.