CVE-2024-53857: Pgp Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-4grw-m28r-q285
CVSS 7.5
CWE-770
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2024-53857 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) remote code execution vulnerability (CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) affecting Pgp libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves rpgp potential resource exhaustion when handling untrusted messages. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.14.2.

CVE-2024-53857 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2024-53857
GHSA Identifier GHSA-4grw-m28r-q285
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Affected Product Pgp
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2024-53857

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Pgp dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

pgp fixed: 0.14.2
Upgrade pgp to 0.14.2
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:

inspect dependencies for pgp

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2024-53857, inspect your project dependencies for Pgp:

inspect dependencies for pgp

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Pgp in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.14.2), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling, where the product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated. In Pgp, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

During a security audit, [Radically Open Security](https://www.radicallyopensecurity.com/) discovered two vulnerabilities which allow attackers to trigger resource exhaustion vulnerabilities in `rpgp` by providing crafted messages. This affects general message parsing and decryption with symmetric keys. ### Impact Affected `rpgp` versions do not correctly set upper limits on the total reserved amount of memory when parsing long sequences of partial OpenPGP packets, which can grow to to several GiB in size. Additionally, up to 4GiB of memory is reserved for OpenPGP packets of fixed size with large length fields, even if less data is received. Depending on existing message size restrictions and available system resources, this can cause out-of-memory conditions and crash the `rpgp` process or cause other system instability through memory resource exhaustion when parsing crafted messages. Affected `rpgp` versions are susceptible to excessive memory allocation with values of up to 2TiB or long processing times for some decryption operations which involve the [Argon2 function](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9580.html#name-argon2). An attacker can provide a valid `Symmetric Key Encrypted Session Key` packet (SKESK) which uses `Argon2` for String-to-Key hashing with parameters that are excessive, but within specification limits of the RFC9580 OpenPGP standard. Since `rpgp` did not further restrict the Argon2 parameters, this can cause out-of-memory conditions and crash the `rpgp` process. Under some conditions, the memory resource exhaustion may trigger other system instability. Alternatively, this can make the program unresponsive via long computations. The attacker needs to trick a victim into attempting decryption, but does not require knowledge of the symmetric secret used by the victim. There is no impact to confidentiality or integrity security properties. ### Versions and Patches The impact details on the message parsing component varies with different versions. We've confirmed some of the problematic behavior on older versions such as `v0.10.0` and see all recent versions as affected in some form. The affected `Argon2` functionality was introduced with `v0.12.0-alpha.1`, earlier versions are not vulnerable. The vulnerabilities have been fixed with version `0.14.2`. We recommend all users to upgrade to this version. ### References The security audit was made possible by the [NLnet Foundation NGI Zero Core](https://nlnet.nl/core/) grant program [for rpgp](https://nlnet.nl/project/rPGP-cryptorefresh/).

CVE-2024-53857 Affected Pgp Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.14.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
pgp
crates.io
< 0.14.2
0.14.2

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2024-53857?
CVE-2024-53857 is a security vulnerability in Pgp involving rPGP Potential Resource Exhaustion when handling Untrusted Messages under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling.
Which Pgp versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.14.2 across affected packages: pgp.
What version fixes CVE-2024-53857?
Upgrading to 0.14.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is pgp affected?
Yes, pgp is affected in releases prior to 0.14.2. Upgrade your dependency to 0.14.2 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2024-53857?
CVE-2024-53857 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2024-53857?
CVE-2024-53857 is classified under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2024-53857?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for pgp'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-4grw-m28r-q285",
  "modified" : "2024-12-05T19:05:49Z",
  "published" : "2024-12-05T17:31:35Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2024-53857" ],
  "summary" : "rPGP Potential Resource Exhaustion when handling Untrusted Messages",
  "details" : "During a security audit, [Radically Open Security](https://www.radicallyopensecurity.com/) discovered two vulnerabilities which allow attackers to trigger resource exhaustion vulnerabilities in `rpgp` by providing crafted messages. This affects general message parsing and decryption with symmetric keys.\n\n### Impact\nAffected `rpgp` versions do not correctly set upper limits on the total reserved amount of memory when parsing long sequences of partial OpenPGP packets, which can grow to to several GiB in size. Additionally, up to 4GiB of memory is reserved for OpenPGP packets of fixed size with large length fields, even if less data is received. \nDepending on existing message size restrictions and available system resources, this can cause out-of-memory conditions and crash the `rpgp` process or cause other system instability through memory resource exhaustion when parsing crafted messages.\n\nAffected `rpgp` versions are susceptible to excessive memory allocation with values of up to 2TiB or long processing times for some decryption operations which involve the [Argon2 function](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9580.html#name-argon2). An attacker can provide a valid `Symmetric Key Encrypted Session Key` packet (SKESK) which uses `Argon2` for String-to-Key hashing with parameters that are excessive, but within specification limits of the RFC9580 OpenPGP standard. Since `rpgp` did not further restrict the Argon2 parameters, this can cause out-of-memory conditions and crash the `rpgp` process. Under some conditions,   the memory resource exhaustion may trigger other system instability. Alternatively, this can make the program unresponsive via long computations. The attacker needs to trick a victim into attempting decryption, but does not require knowledge of the symmetric secret used by the victim.\n\nThere is no impact to confidentiality or integrity security properties.\n\n### Versions and Patches\n\nThe impact details on the message parsing component varies with different versions. We've confirmed some of the problematic behavior on older versions such as `v0.10.0` and see all recent versions as affected in some form.  \n\nThe affected `Argon2` functionality was introduced with `v0.12.0-alpha.1`, earlier versions are not vulnerable.\n\nThe vulnerabilities have been fixed with version `0.14.2`. We recommend all users to upgrade to this version.\n\n### References\n\n\nThe security audit was made possible by the [NLnet Foundation NGI Zero Core](https://nlnet.nl/core/) grant program [for rpgp](https://nlnet.nl/project/rPGP-cryptorefresh/).",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "pgp"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.14.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rpgp/rpgp/security/advisories/GHSA-4grw-m28r-q285"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-53857"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rpgp/rpgp"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-770" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2024-12-05T17:31:35Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2024-12-05T16:15:26Z"
  }
}