Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. Starting in version 4.4.0 and prior to version 4.14.3, a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the Wazuh Database synchronization module (wdb_delta_event.c). The SQL query construction logic allows for an integer underflow when calculating the remaining buffer size. This occurs because the code incorrectly aggregates the return value of snprintf. If a specific database synchronization payload exceeds the size of the query buffer (2048 bytes), the size calculation wraps around to a massive integer, effectively removing bounds checking for subsequent writes. This allows an attacker to corrupt the stack, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS) or potentially RCE. Version 4.14.3 fixes the issue.
Weakness
A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function).
Potential Mitigations
- 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.
- 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].