CVE-2023-4863

Heap buffer overflow in libwebp in Google Chrome prior to 116.0.5845.187 and libwebp 1.3.2 allowed a remote attacker to perform an out of bounds memory write via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Critical)

Weakness

The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Affected Software

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

• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/21/4
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/1
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/3
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/4
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/5
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/6
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/7
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/22/8
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/26/1
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/26/7
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/28/1
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/28/2
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/09/28/4
• https://adamcaudill.com/2023/09/14/whose-cve-is-it-anyway/
• https://blog.isosceles.com/the-webp-0day/
• https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1215231
• https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2023/09/stable-channel-update-for-desktop_11.html
• https://crbug.com/1479274
• https://en.bandisoft.com/honeyview/history/
• https://github.com/webmproject/libwebp/commit/902bc9190331343b2017211debcec8d2ab87e17a
• https://github.com/webmproject/libwebp/releases/tag/v1.3.2
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/09/msg00015.html
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/09/msg00016.html
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/09/msg00017.html
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/6T655QF7CQ3DYAMPFV7IECQYGDEUIVVT/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FYYKLG6CRGEDTNRBSU26EEWAO6D6U645/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/KUQ7CTX3W372X3UY56VVNAHCH6H2F4X3/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OZDGWWMJREPAGKWCJKSCM4WYLANSKIFX/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PYZV7TMKF4QHZ54SFJX54BDN52VHGGCX/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WHOLML7N2G5KCAZXFWC5IDFFHSQS5SDB/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WTRUIS3564P7ZLM2S2IH4Y4KZ327LI4I/
• https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2023-4863
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37478403
• https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-4863
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-05
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202401-10
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230929-0011/
• https://sethmlarson.dev/security-developer-in-residence-weekly-report-16
• https://stackdiary.com/critical-vulnerability-in-webp-codec-cve-2023-4863/
• https://www.bentley.com/advisories/be-2023-0001/
• https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-fixes-another-chrome-zero-day-bug-exploited-in-attacks/
• https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5496
• https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5497
• https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5498
• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2023-40/