CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-22789

Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Published: Sep 02, 2021 | Modified: Sep 13, 2021
CVSS 3.x
6.5
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.x
4 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

A CWE-119: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer vulnerability that could cause a Denial of Service on the Modicon PLC controller / simulator when updating the controller application with a specially crafted project file exists in Modicon M580 CPU (part numbers BMEP* and BMEH*, all versions), Modicon M340 CPU (part numbers BMXP34*, all versions), Modicon MC80 (part numbers BMKC80*, all versions), Modicon Momentum Ethernet CPU (part numbers 171CBU*, all versions), PLC Simulator for EcoStruxureª Control Expert, including all Unity Pro versions (former name of EcoStruxureª Control Expert, all versions), PLC Simulator for EcoStruxureª Process Expert including all HDCS versions (former name of EcoStruxureª Process Expert, all versions), Modicon Quantum CPU (part numbers 140CPU*, all versions), Modicon Premium CPU (part numbers TSXP5*, all versions).

Weakness

The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Modicon_m340_bmxp341000 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m340_bmxp342010 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m340_bmxp342020 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m340_bmxp342030 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh582040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh582040c Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh582040s Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh584040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh584040c Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh584040s Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh586040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh586040c Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmeh586040s Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep581020 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep581020h Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep582020 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep582020h Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep582040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep582040h Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep582040s Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep583020 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep583040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep584020 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep584040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep584040s Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep585040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep585040c Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep586040 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_m580_bmep586040c Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_mc80_bmkc8020301 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_mc80_bmkc8020310 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_mc80_bmkc8030311 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_momentum_171cbu78090 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_momentum_171cbu98090 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_momentum_171cbu98091 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_1634m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_2634m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_2834m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_454m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_4634m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_554m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_5634m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_premium_tsxp57_6634m Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_quantum_140cpu65150 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_quantum_140cpu65150c Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_quantum_140cpu65160 Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Modicon_quantum_140cpu65160c Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Plc_simulator_for_ecostruxure_control_expert Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)
Plc_simulator_for_ecostruxure_process_expert Schneider-electric - (including) - (including)

Extended Description

Certain languages allow direct addressing of memory locations and do not automatically ensure that these locations are valid for the memory buffer that is being referenced. This can cause read or write operations to be performed on memory locations that may be associated with other variables, data structures, or internal program data. As a result, an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code, alter the intended control flow, read sensitive information, or cause the system to crash.

Potential Mitigations

  • Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

  • For example, many languages that perform their own memory management, such as Java and Perl, are not subject to buffer overflows. Other languages, such as Ada and C#, typically provide overflow protection, but the protection can be disabled by the programmer.

  • Be wary that a language’s interface to native code may still be subject to overflows, even if the language itself is theoretically safe.

  • Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

  • Examples include the Safe C String Library (SafeStr) by Messier and Viega [REF-57], and the Strsafe.h library from Microsoft [REF-56]. These libraries provide safer versions of overflow-prone string-handling functions.

  • Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.

  • D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.

  • Consider adhering to the following rules when allocating and managing an application’s memory:

  • Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.

  • Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.

  • For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].

  • Use a CPU and operating system that offers Data Execution Protection (using hardware NX or XD bits) or the equivalent techniques that simulate this feature in software, such as PaX [REF-60] [REF-61]. These techniques ensure that any instruction executed is exclusively at a memory address that is part of the code segment.

  • For more information on these techniques see D3-PSEP (Process Segment Execution Prevention) from D3FEND [REF-1336].

References