CVE-2023-36478
HTTP/2 HPACK integer overflow and buffer allocation
Description
Eclipse Jetty provides a web server and servlet container. In versions 11.0.0 through 11.0.15, 10.0.0 through 10.0.15, and 9.0.0 through 9.4.52, an integer overflow in `MetaDataBuilder.checkSize` allows for HTTP/2 HPACK header values to exceed their size limit. `MetaDataBuilder.java` determines if a header name or value exceeds the size limit, and throws an exception if the limit is exceeded. However, when length is very large and huffman is true, the multiplication by 4 in line 295 will overflow, and length will become negative. `(_size+length)` will now be negative, and the check on line 296 will not be triggered. Furthermore, `MetaDataBuilder.checkSize` allows for user-entered HPACK header value sizes to be negative, potentially leading to a very large buffer allocation later on when the user-entered size is multiplied by 2. This means that if a user provides a negative length value (or, more precisely, a length value which, when multiplied by the 4/3 fudge factor, is negative), and this length value is a very large positive number when multiplied by 2, then the user can cause a very large buffer to be allocated on the server. Users of HTTP/2 can be impacted by a remote denial of service attack. The issue has been fixed in versions 11.0.16, 10.0.16, and 9.4.53. There are no known workarounds.
How to fix CVE-2023-36478
To remediate CVE-2023-36478, upgrade the affected package to a fixed version below.
- —upgrade to 2.428.0 or later
- —upgrade to 9.4.50-4+deb11u1 or later
- —upgrade to 9.4.50-4+deb11u1 or later
- —upgrade to 10.0.16 or later
- —upgrade to 10.0.16 or later
Is CVE-2023-36478 being exploited?
Low — EPSS is 3.8%, meaning exploitation activity has not been observed at scale.