CVE-2020-11105

An issue was discovered in USC iLab cereal through 1.3.0. It employs caching of std::shared_ptr values, using the raw pointer address as a unique identifier. This becomes problematic if an std::shared_ptr variable goes out of scope and is freed, and a new std::shared_ptr is allocated at the same address. Serialization fidelity thereby becomes dependent upon memory layout. In short, serialized std::shared_ptr variables cannot always be expected to serialize back into their original values. This can have any number of consequences, depending on the context within which this manifests.

Weakness

The product attempts to return a memory resource to the system, but it calls the wrong release function or calls the appropriate release function incorrectly.

Affected Software

Extended Description

This weakness can take several forms, such as:

Potential Mitigations

• Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
• For example, glibc in Linux provides protection against free of invalid pointers.

References

• https://github.com/USCiLab/cereal/issues/636