CVE-2021-26951: Calamine Out Of Bounds Write Vulnerability

CRITICAL
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-ppqp-78xx-3r38
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CVSS 9.8
CWE-787
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2021-26951 is a CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8) out of bounds write vulnerability (CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write) affecting Calamine libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves out of bounds write in calamine. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.17.0.

CVE-2021-26951 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2021-26951
GHSA Identifier GHSA-ppqp-78xx-3r38
Severity CRITICAL
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 9.8
CWE Classification CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write
Affected Product Calamine
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-2021-26951

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

calamine fixed: 0.17.0 
Upgrade calamine to 0.17.0
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 calamine

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2021-26951, inspect your project dependencies for Calamine:

inspect dependencies for calamine

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Calamine in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.17.0), 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-787: Out-of-bounds Write, where the product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. In Calamine, 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

An issue was discovered in the calamine crate before 0.17.0 for Rust. It allows attackers to overwrite heap-memory locations because Vec::set_len is used without proper memory claiming, and this uninitialized memory is used for a user-provided Read operation, as demonstrated by Sectors::get.

CVE-2021-26951 Affected Calamine Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.17.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
calamine
 crates.io
< 0.17.0
0.17.0

References

NVD — CVE-2021-26951 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-26951
Calamine Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/tafia/calamine/issues/199
Calamine Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/tafia/calamine
rustsec.org/advisories/rustsec-... WEB
https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2021-0015.html

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2021-26951?
CVE-2021-26951 is a security vulnerability in Calamine involving Out of bounds write in calamine under CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write.
Which Calamine versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.17.0 across affected packages: calamine.
What version fixes CVE-2021-26951?
Upgrading to 0.17.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is calamine affected?
Yes, calamine is affected in releases prior to 0.17.0. Upgrade your dependency to 0.17.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-26951?
CVE-2021-26951 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-2021-26951?
CVE-2021-26951 is classified under CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write (The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2021-26951?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for calamine'. 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
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-ppqp-78xx-3r38",
  "modified" : "2022-04-26T18:11:53Z",
  "published" : "2021-08-25T20:53:25Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2021-26951" ],
  "summary" : "Out of bounds write in calamine",
  "details" : "An issue was discovered in the calamine crate before 0.17.0 for Rust. It allows attackers to overwrite heap-memory locations because Vec::set_len is used without proper memory claiming, and this uninitialized memory is used for a user-provided Read operation, as demonstrated by Sectors::get.",
  "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" : "calamine"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.17.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-26951"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/tafia/calamine/issues/199"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/tafia/calamine"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2021-0015.html"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-787" ],
    "severity" : "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2021-08-19T17:35:56Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2021-02-09T23:15:00Z"
  }
}