cJSON Out-of-Bounds Access Vulnerability [CVE-2019-11834]

CVE Number – CVE-2019-11834

A vulnerability in cJSON could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to compromise a targeted system completely. The vulnerability is due to an out-of-bounds access condition in the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a malicious string to the targeted system. A successful exploit could cause a buffer overflow condition, allowing the attacker to compromise the system completely. Proof-of-concept (PoC) code that demonstrates an exploit of this vulnerability is publicly available.The vendor has confirmed the vulnerability and released a software update.

Analysis

• To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must submit a malicious string to the targeted system, making exploitation more difficult in environments that restrict network access from untrusted sources.

Safeguards

• Administrators are advised to apply the appropriate updates.Administrators are advised to allow only trusted users to have network access.Administrators are advised to run both firewall and antivirus applications to minimize the potential of inbound and outbound threats.Administrators may consider using IP-based access control lists (ACLs) to allow only trusted systems to access the affected systems.Administrators can help protect affected systems from external attacks by using a solid firewall strategy.Administrators are advised to monitor affected systems.

Vendor Announcements

• The vendor has released an issue report at the following link: issue 337

Fixed Software

• The vendor has released software updates at the following link: cJSON Releases