GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m ELF header parsing library doesn't check for valid offset

Not scored Published

A Rust library for parsing ELF files fails to validate section header offsets, allowing attackers to cause crashes via malformed input.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Not needed
Attackable
Not stated
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m?

GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m is a memory corruption vulnerability in elf_rs, published on 31 Oct 2022.

Official description

The crate has several unsafe sections that don't perform proper pointer validation.

An example can be found in the following function:

fn section_header_raw(&self) -> &[ET::SectionHeader] {
    let sh_off = self.elf_header().section_header_offset() as usize;
    let sh_num = self.elf_header().section_header_entry_num() as usize;
    unsafe {
        let sh_ptr = self.content().as_ptr().add(sh_off);
        from_raw_parts(sh_ptr as *const ET::SectionHeader, sh_num)
    }
}

While this will work perfectly fine if the ELF header is valid, malicious or malformed input can contain a section header offset of an arbitrary size, meaning that the resultant pointer in the unsafe block can point to an artibrary address in the address space of the process.

This can result in unpredictable behaviour, and in our fuzz testing, we discovered that it's trivial to cause SIGABRT (signal 6), or SEGV (signal 11).

The function should either be marked as unsafe, with a note that the caller is responsible for providing only valid inputs, or it should ideally do the due diligence to ensure that the offset doesn't exceed the bounds of the header (and add additional checks as necessary).

Which versions are affected by GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including elf_rs.

PackageAffectedFixed in
elf_rs crates.ioAll versions0.3.0
elf_rs crates.ioAll versions0.3.0
elf_rs crates.ioFrom 0.0.0-00.3.0

How do I fix GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m?

Upgrade elf_rs to 0.3.0 or later.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as RUSTSEC-2022-0079.

Is GHSA-g6pw-999w-j75m in your software?

Upload an SBOM and sbomify checks it against every vulnerability here, every day.

Check your SBOMs for free