Ghidra versions through 12.1.4 contain a heap use-after-free vulnerability in the decompilers Funcdata::opInsertAfter function caused by stale INDIRECT effect-op references. Attackers can craft a malicious binary with a specific x86-64 sequence that triggers the vulnerability during decompilation, causing the decompile helper process to crash and denying service to analysts and automated analysis pipelines.
Weakness
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory “belongs” to the code that operates on the new pointer.
Potential Mitigations
References
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/blob/8b6bbb857accdfa20dc5b2f5dea471178c2e9fbc/Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/src/decompile/cpp/merge.cc#L462-L472
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/blob/8b6bbb857accdfa20dc5b2f5dea471178c2e9fbc/Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/src/decompile/cpp/subflow.cc#L2717-L2745
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/commit/5ef1ee4d7a25a65db195f3a70f681ca74440be61
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/ghidra-through-12.1.4-heap-use-after-free-in-decompiler