PX4 autopilot is a flight control solution for drones. Prior to 1.17.0-rc1, a heap-use-after-free is detected in the MavlinkShell::available() function. The issue is caused by a race condition between the MAVLink receiver thread (which handles shell creation/destruction) and the telemetry sender thread (which polls the shell for available output). The issue is remotely triggerable via MAVLink SERIAL_CONTROL messages (ID 126), which can be sent by an external ground station or automated script. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.17.0-rc1.
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 Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory “belongs” to the code that operates on the new pointer.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Px4_drone_autopilot | Dronecode | * | 1.17.0 (excluding) |
| Px4_drone_autopilot | Dronecode | 1.17.0-alpha1 (including) | 1.17.0-alpha1 (including) |
| Px4_drone_autopilot | Dronecode | 1.17.0-beta1 (including) | 1.17.0-beta1 (including) |