CVE-2021-43174 gzip transfer encoding caused out-of-memory crash
A malicious RRDP repository can cause Routinator to crash via memory exhaustion using gzip-compressed XML whitespace.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2021-43174?
CVE-2021-43174 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 9 Nov 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
NLnet Labs Routinator versions 0.9.0 up to and including 0.10.1, support the gzip transfer encoding when querying RRDP repositories. This encoding can be used by an RRDP repository to cause an out-of-memory crash in these versions of Routinator. RRDP uses XML which allows arbitrary amounts of white space in the encoded data. The gzip scheme compresses such white space extremely well, leading to very small compressed files that become huge when being decompressed for further processing, big enough that Routinator runs out of memory when parsing input data waiting for the next XML element.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-43174?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including routinator. It affects 2 products.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
routinator crates.io | From 0.9.0 | 0.10.2 |
routinator crates.io | From 0.9.0 | 0.10.2 |
Products include Debian Debian Linux, Nlnetlabs Routinator.
How do I fix CVE-2021-43174?
Upgrade routinator to 0.10.2 or later.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2021-43174 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-43174 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-43174, GHSA-6mv9-qcx2-3hh3.