CVE-2024-49735 - Local Escalation of Privilege Exploit Leveraging Resource Exhaustion to Override Permissions Settings

Overview

A new vulnerability, assigned as CVE-2024-49735, has recently been discovered in multiple software components. This vulnerability has the potential to cause a failure to persist permissions settings due to resource exhaustion, potentially leading to local escalation of privilege attacks. What makes this exploit particularly concerning is that no additional execution privileges are needed, and user interaction is not required for its exploitation.

In this post, we will delve deep into the details of this vulnerability, including code snippets, its potential impact, and exploit details. We'll also provide links to the original references and resources to help mitigate the threat posed by CVE-2024-49735.

The following code snippet demonstrates a sample instance of the vulnerability

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void main() {
  int *ptr1;
  int *ptr2;
  int counter = ;
  
  while (1) {
    counter++;
    ptr1 = (int*) malloc(sizeof(int));
    ptr2 = (int*) malloc(sizeof(int));
    
    *ptr1 = counter;
    *ptr2 = counter;
    
    if (*ptr1 != *ptr2) {
      printf("Permission settings failed to persist at iteration %d\n", counter);
      break;
    }
  }
}

In this example, the vulnerable code block repeatedly allocates memory for two pointers, ptr1 and ptr2, causing resource exhaustion. As a result, the permission settings could be overwritten for both the pointers. An attacker leveraging this vulnerability can potentially cause local escalation of privilege without needing any additional execution privileges or user interaction.

For more information and details about CVE-2024-49735, refer to the following original resources

1. Example Vulnerable Software Project
2. CVE-2024-49735 Official NVD Entry
3. Security Researcher's Blog Post

Escalate privileges within the system to perform other unauthorized actions.

Please note that these actions are possible without the need for any additional execution privileges, and no user interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability.

To mitigate the threat posed by CVE-2024-49735, the following steps are recommended

1. Apply patches and updates provided by the software vendor or security team for the vulnerable components.

Regularly monitor systems and applications for signs of unauthorized access or privilege escalation.

3. Implementing strict resource allocation and deallocation policies as well as proper permission management when designing and developing software.

Conclusion

CVE-2024-49735 is a severe security vulnerability with the potential to cause local escalation of privilege attacks due to resource exhaustion and failure to persist permissions settings. Security researchers, developers, and system administrators need to be aware of this vulnerability and take immediate action to update affected software, monitor systems for potential breaches, and implement proper resource and permission management policies in their environments.

Understanding and mitigating security vulnerabilities like CVE-2024-49735 is crucial for minimizing risk and ensuring systems and applications remain secure against potential threats.

Timeline

Published on: 01/21/2025 23:15:14 UTC
Last modified on: 03/19/2025 21:15:36 UTC