Buffer overflow in Nanopb

CVE-2020-26243

Nanopb is a small code-size Protocol Buffers implementation. In Nanopb before versions 0.4.4 and 0.3.9.7, decoding specifically formed message can leak memory if dynamic allocation is enabled and an oneof field contains a static submessage that contains a dynamic field, and the message being decoded contains the submessage multiple times. This is rare in normal messages, but it is a concern when untrusted data is parsed. This is fixed in versions 0.3.9.7 and 0.4.4. The following workarounds are available: 1) Set the option `no_unions` for the oneof field. This will generate fields as separate instead of C union, and avoids triggering the problematic code. 2) Set the type of the submessage field inside oneof to `FT_POINTER`. This way the whole submessage will be dynamically allocated and the problematic code is not executed. 3) Use an arena allocator for nanopb, to make sure all memory can be released afterwards.

Vulnerability class: Drupalgeddon 2 (CVE-2018-7600)

EPSS: 0.026 (83.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-26243?
CVE-2020-26243 is a high-severity vulnerability in Nanopb, classified under Improper Input Validation. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2020-11-25.
How severe is CVE-2020-26243?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-26243 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.