Nanopb is a small code-size Protocol Buffers implementation. When the compile time option PB_ENABLE_MALLOC is enabled, the message contains at least one field with FT_POINTER field type, custom stream callback is used with unknown stream length. and the pb_decode_ex() function is used with flag PB_DECODE_DELIMITED, then the pb_decode_ex() function does not automatically call pb_release(), like is done for other failure cases. This could lead to memory leak and potential denial-of-service. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.4.9.1.
Weakness
The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory.
Potential Mitigations
- Choose a language or tool that provides automatic memory management, or makes manual memory management less error-prone.
- For example, glibc in Linux provides protection against free of invalid pointers.
- When using Xcode to target OS X or iOS, enable automatic reference counting (ARC) [REF-391].
- To help correctly and consistently manage memory when programming in C++, consider using a smart pointer class such as std::auto_ptr (defined by ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 14882:2003), std::shared_ptr and std::unique_ptr (specified by an upcoming revision of the C++ standard, informally referred to as C++ 1x), or equivalent solutions such as Boost.
References