CVE-2021-26956: Xcb Arbitrary Return Types Vulnerability

CRITICAL
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-mp6r-fgw2-rxfx
CVSS 9.8
CWE-657
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2021-26956 is a CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8) arbitrary return types vulnerability (CWE-657: Violation of Secure Design Principles) affecting Xcb libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves arbitrary return types in xcb. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 1.0.0.

CVE-2021-26956 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2021-26956
GHSA Identifier GHSA-mp6r-fgw2-rxfx
Severity CRITICAL
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 9.8
CWE Classification CWE-657: Violation of Secure Design Principles
Affected Product Xcb
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 9.8

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:H/I:H/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 High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2021-26956

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

xcb fixed: 1.0.0
Upgrade xcb to 1.0.0
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 xcb

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2021-26956, inspect your project dependencies for Xcb:

inspect dependencies for xcb

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Xcb in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 1.0.0), 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-657: Violation of Secure Design Principles, where the product violates well-established principles for secure design. In Xcb, 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

The function xcb::xproto::GetPropertyReply::value() returns a slice of type T where T is an unconstrained type parameter. The raw bytes received from the X11 server are interpreted as the requested type. The users of the xcb crate are advised to only call this function with the intended types. These are u8, u16, and u32. This issue is tracked here: https://github.com/rust-x-bindings/rust-xcb/issues/95

CVE-2021-26956 Affected Xcb Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
1.0.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
xcb
crates.io
< 1.0.0
1.0.0

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2021-26956?
CVE-2021-26956 is a security vulnerability in Xcb involving Arbitrary return types in xcb under CWE-657: Violation of Secure Design Principles.
Which Xcb versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 1.0.0 across affected packages: xcb.
What version fixes CVE-2021-26956?
Upgrading to 1.0.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is xcb affected?
Yes, xcb is affected in releases prior to 1.0.0. Upgrade your dependency to 1.0.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-26956?
CVE-2021-26956 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2021-26956?
CVE-2021-26956 is classified under CWE-657: Violation of Secure Design Principles (The product violates well-established principles for secure design.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2021-26956?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for xcb'. 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-mp6r-fgw2-rxfx",
  "modified" : "2023-06-13T22:28:51Z",
  "published" : "2021-08-25T20:53:27Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2021-26956" ],
  "summary" : "Arbitrary return types in xcb",
  "details" : "The function xcb::xproto::GetPropertyReply::value() returns a slice of type T where T is an unconstrained type parameter. The raw bytes received from the X11 server are interpreted as the requested type. The users of the xcb crate are advised to only call this function with the intended types. These are u8, u16, and u32.\n\nThis issue is tracked here: https://github.com/rust-x-bindings/rust-xcb/issues/95",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "xcb"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.0.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-26956"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/RustSec/advisory-db/issues/653"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-x-bindings/rust-xcb/issues/95"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rtbo/rust-xcb"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2021-0019.html"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-657" ],
    "severity" : "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2021-08-19T17:35:46Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}