Resource exhaustion in Wolfssl
CVE-2022-38153
An issue was discovered in wolfSSL before 5.5.0 (when --enable-session-ticket is used); however, only version 5.3.0 is exploitable. Man-in-the-middle attackers or a malicious server can crash TLS 1.2 clients during a handshake. If an attacker injects a large ticket (more than 256 bytes) into a NewSessionTicket message in a TLS 1.2 handshake, and the client has a non-empty session cache, the session cache frees a pointer that points to unallocated memory, causing the client to crash with a "free(): invalid pointer" message. NOTE: It is likely that this is also exploitable during TLS 1.3 handshakes between a client and a malicious server. With TLS 1.3, it is not possible to exploit this as a man-in-the-middle.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.023 (82.8th percentile), scored .
Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 83rd percentile — 82.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.023 · newest: 0.023 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Wolfssl — versions 5.3.0
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl/releases (Release Notes)
- www.wolfssl.com/docs/security-vulnerabilities/ (Vendor Advisory)
- github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl/pull/5476 (Exploit, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
- github.com/trailofbits/tlspuffin (Not Applicable)
- seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Jan/8 (mailing-list, Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- packetstormsecurity.com/files/170605/wolfSSL-5.3.0-Denial-Of-Service.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
- blog.trailofbits.com/2023/01/12/wolfssl-vulnerabilities-tlspuffin-fuzzing-ssh/ (Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2022-38153?
- CVE-2022-38153 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wolfssl, classified under Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2022-08-31.
- How severe is CVE-2022-38153?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2022-38153 known to be exploited?
- 4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.