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HIGH

CVE-2023-25568

CVE-2023-25568 — Boxo bitswap/server: DOS unbounded persistent memory leak

Boxo, formerly known as go-libipfs, is a library for building IPFS applications and implementations. In versions 0.4.0 and 0.5.0, if an attacker is able allocate arbitrary many bytes in the Bitswap server, those allocations are lasting even if the connection is closed. This affects users accepting untrusted connections with the Bitswap server and also affects users using the old API stubs at `github.com/ipfs/go-libipfs/bitswap` because users then transitively import `github.com/ipfs/go-libipfs/bitswap/server`. Boxo versions 0.6.0 and 0.4.1 contain a patch for this issue. As a workaround, those who are using the stub object at `github.com/ipfs/go-libipfs/bitswap` not taking advantage of the features provided by the server can refactor their code to use the new split API that will allow them to run in a client only mode: `github.com/ipfs/go-libipfs/bitswap/client`.

Published Updated Sources: cvelistV5, GitHub_M

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the scoring sources call it.

Exploitation

Unreported

no source claims exploitation

EPSS

1%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Affects

ipfs

boxo

CVSS base

8.2

HIGH

CISA SSVC assessment

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses · SSVC 2.0.3. A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

CISA

Exploitation

None

none · proof-of-concept · active

Automatable

Yes

can an attacker script all four kill-chain steps

Technical impact

Partial

partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Affected scope

The catalog records vendors and products as separate lists, not pairs, so which product belongs to which vendor is not something this page can say.

Vendors (1)

Products (1)

boxo

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactSource
8.2CVSS 3.1HIGHcvelistV5

Weakness & attack patterns

  • CWE-400
  • CWE-770

Attack patterns reported against this CVE. The ATT&CK techniques below are inferred from its weakness class.

  • T1499Endpoint Denial of Service
  • T1498.001Network Denial of Service: Direct Network Flood
  • T1499.003Endpoint Denial of Service: Application Exhaustion Flood

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not rules we have tested.

  • Search application, proxy, and WAF logs for requests touching /ipfs/go-libipfs/bitswap, /ipfs/go-libipfs/bitswap/server, /ipfs/go-libipfs/bitswap/client.

References

4 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

  • ipfsevery CVE for this vendor
  • CWE-400other pages naming this weakness

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.