CVE-2016-8619
double free in krb5 code
Project curl Security Advisory, November 2, 2016 - Permalink
VULNERABILITY
In curl's implementation of the Kerberos authentication mechanism,
the function read_data() in security.c is used to fill the
necessary krb5 structures. When reading one of the length fields from
the socket, it fails to ensure that the length parameter passed to
realloc() is not set to 0.
This would lead to realloc() getting called with a zero size and when doing so realloc() returns NULL and frees the memory - in contrary to normal realloc() fails where it only returns NULL - causing libcurl to free the memory again in the error path.
This flaw could be triggered by a malicious or just otherwise ill-behaving server.
INFO
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the name CVE-2016-8619 to this issue.
CWE-415: Double Free
Severity: High
AFFECTED VERSIONS
This flaw exists in the following curl versions
- Affected versions: curl 7.3 to and including 7.50.3
- Not affected versions: curl < 7.3 and curl >= 7.51.0
- Introduced-in: https://github.com/curl/curl/commit/def69c30879c0246bcc
libcurl is used by many applications, but not always advertised as such!
SOLUTION
In version 7.51.0, the function reading data considers reading a zero size to be an error and bails out.
RECOMMENDATIONS
We suggest you take one of the following actions immediately, in order of preference:
A - Upgrade curl and libcurl to version 7.51.0
B - Apply the patch to your version and rebuild
C - Do not use KRB5
TIMELINE
It was first reported to the curl project on September 23 by Cure53.
We contacted distros@openwall on October 19.
curl 7.51.0 was released on November 2 2016, coordinated with the publication of this advisory.
CREDITS
- Reported-by: Cure53
- Patched-by: Daniel Stenberg
This vulnerability was found during a Secure Open Source audit performed by Cure53.