Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in MBed OS 6.16.0 by Arm

CVE-2024-48981

Summary

A buffer overflow vulnerability has been identified in MBed OS version 6.16.0, specifically during the processing of HCI packets. The implementation improperly handles packet header lengths by dynamically determining them based on the first identifying byte. However, in cases where the identifier is invalid, the parsing mechanism fails to discard and does not provide a safe default for unknown packet lengths. This oversight can be exploited to achieve arbitrary write operations by manipulating pointers to unallocated buffers, enabling an attacker to overwrite crucial state variables and potentially modify the function's flow during packet parsing. Such exploitation can lead to significant security risks, including unauthorized access and system compromise.

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