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CVE-2017-1000257: Haxx Libcurl: Denial of service

CVE-2017-1000257 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.1 and affects Haxx Libcurl, along with 1 other product in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction.

Vulnerability description

An IMAP FETCH response line indicates the size of the returned data, in number of bytes. When that response says the data is zero bytes, libcurl would pass on that (non-existing) data with a pointer and the size (zero) to the deliver-data function. libcurl's deliver-data function treats zero as a magic number and invokes strlen() on the data to figure out the length. The strlen() is called on a heap based buffer that might not be zero terminated so libcurl might read beyond the end of it into whatever memory lies after (or just crash) and then deliver that to the application as if it was actually downloaded.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 9.1: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
Integrity impact: None. No loss of integrity.
Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-119: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary.

Affected products

Haxx Libcurl: from 7.20.0 up to and including 7.56.0
Debian Linux: 8.0; 9.0