CVE-2021-25217
Description
A flaw was found in the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). There is a discrepancy between the code that handles encapsulated option information in leases transmitted "on the wire" and the code which reads and parses lease information after it has been written to disk storage. This flaw allows an attacker to deliberately cause a situation where dhcpd while running in DHCPv4 or DHCPv6 mode, or the dhclient attempts to read a stored lease that contains option information, to trigger a stack-based buffer overflow in the option parsing code for colon-separated hex digits values. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as service availability.
Statement
To abuse this flaw an attacker has to be on the same local sub-net of the victim machine. An attacker may send crafted DHCP messages with long lease statements that, when stored locally on file and then re-read by dhclient or dhcpd, might trigger the bug.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 8.8 | 7.4 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Adjacent Network | Adjacent Network | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | None | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Changed | N/A |
| Confidentiality | High | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | High | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation
Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability all set to High (C:H/I:H/A:H) due to the stack-based buffer overflow nature of the bug. In practice we were not able to overwrite any valuable data on the stack, but we do not exclude it might be possible to get code execution in some cases.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Modify Memory
If the memory accessible by the attacker can be effectively controlled, it may be possible to execute arbitrary code, as with a standard buffer overflow. If the attacker can overwrite a pointer's worth of memory (usually 32 or 64 bits), they can alter the intended control flow by redirecting a function pointer to their own malicious code. Even when the attacker can only modify a single byte arbitrary code execution can be possible. Sometimes this is because the same problem can be exploited repeatedly to the same effect. Other times it is because the attacker can overwrite security-critical application-specific data -- such as a flag indicating whether the user is an administrator.
Availability,Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
Out of bounds memory access will very likely result in the corruption of relevant memory, and perhaps instructions, possibly leading to a crash. Other attacks leading to lack of availability are possible, including putting the program into an infinite loop.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
In the case of an out-of-bounds read, the attacker may have access to sensitive information. If the sensitive information contains system details, such as the current buffer's position in memory, this knowledge can be used to craft further attacks, possibly with more severe consequences.
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