LibHTP is a security-aware parser for the HTTP protocol and its related bits and pieces. In versions 0.5.50 and below, there is a traffic-induced memory leak that can starve the process of memory, leading to loss of visibility. To workaround this issue, set suricata.yaml app-layer.protocols.http.libhtp.default-config.lzma-enabled to false. This issue is fixed in version 0.5.51.
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