CVE-2024-4435 BTreeMap memory leak when deallocating nodes with overflows
Attackers can trigger a memory leak in BTreeMap by storing unbounded types, leading to excessive memory consumption and potential denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2024-4435?
CVE-2024-4435 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Internet Computer ic-stable-structures, published on 21 May 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
When storing unbounded types in a BTreeMap, a node is represented as a linked list of "memory chunks". It was discovered recently that when we deallocate a node, in some cases only the first memory chunk is deallocated, and the rest of the memory chunks remain (incorrectly) allocated, causing a memory leak. In the worst case, depending on how a canister uses the BTreeMap, an adversary could interact with the canister through its API and trigger interactions with the map that keep consuming memory due to the memory leak. This could potentially lead to using an excessive amount of memory, or even running out of memory.
This issue has been fixed in #212 https://github.com/dfinity/stable-structures/pull/212 by changing the logic for deallocating nodes to ensure that all of a node's memory chunks are deallocated and users are asked to upgrade to version 0.6.4.. Tests have been added to prevent regressions of this nature moving forward. Note: Users of stable-structure < 0.6.0 are not affected.
Users who are not storing unbounded types in BTreeMap are not affected and do not need to upgrade. Otherwise, an upgrade to version 0.6.4 is necessary.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-4435?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including ic-stable-structures. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
ic-stable-structures crates.io | From 0.6.0 | 0.6.4 |
ic-stable-structures crates.io | From 0.6.0 | 0.6.4 |
ic-stable-structures crates.io | From 0.6.0 | 0.6.4 |
Products include Dfinity Stable Structures.
How do I fix CVE-2024-4435?
Upgrade ic-stable-structures to 0.6.4 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-2024-4435 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-4435 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-3rcq-39xp-7xjp, RUSTSEC-2024-0406.