CVE-2022-4450

CVE Details

Visit the official vulnerability details page for CVE-2022-4450 to learn more.

Initial Publication

10/25/2024

Last Update

12/16/2024

Third Party Dependency

openssl

NIST CVE Summary

The function PEM_read_bio_ex() reads a PEM file from a BIO and parses and decodes the "name" (e.g. "CERTIFICATE"), any header data and the payload data. If the function succeeds then the "name_out", "header" and "data" arguments are populated with pointers to buffers containing the relevant decoded data. The caller is responsible for freeing those buffers. It is possible to construct a PEM file that results in 0 bytes of payload data. In this case PEM_read_bio_ex() will return a failure code but will populate the header argument with a pointer to a buffer that has already been freed. If the caller also frees this buffer then a double free will occur. This will most likely lead to a crash. This could be exploited by an attacker who has the ability to supply malicious PEM files for parsing to achieve a denial of service attack.

The functions PEM_read_bio() and PEM_read() are simple wrappers around PEM_read_bio_ex() and therefore these functions are also directly affected.

These functions are also called indirectly by a number of other OpenSSL functions including PEM_X509_INFO_read_bio_ex() and SSL_CTX_use_serverinfo_file() which are also vulnerable. Some OpenSSL internal uses of these functions are not vulnerable because the caller does not free the header argument if PEM_read_bio_ex() returns a failure code. These locations include the PEM_read_bio_TYPE() functions as well as the decoders introduced in OpenSSL 3.0.

The OpenSSL asn1parse command line application is also impacted by this issue.

CVE Severity

7.5

Our Official Summary

This is a double-free vulnerability found in OpenSSL's PEM_read_bio_ex function. In this case, PEM_read_bio_ex() when it returns a failure code under specific input but will populate the header argument with a pointer to a freed buffer. A double-free will occur if the caller also frees this buffer. This will most likely lead to a crash. This could be exploited by an attacker who can supply malicious PEM files for parsing to achieve a denial of service attack.

The images where this vulnrability is have controls in place are not accessible outside the cluster. So the attacker needs to gain privileged access to the cluster to attempt this exploit. Even then exploit is not easy because these containers do not allow execution of arbitrary code, which is necessary to exploit this. Impact of this exploit is also low, since container doesn't allow host breakout.

Status

Ongoing

Affected Products & Versions

Version	Palette Enterprise	Palette Enterprise Airgap	VerteX	VerteX Airgap
4.5.15	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact
4.5.11	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact
4.5.10	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact
4.5.8	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact
4.5.5	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact
4.5.4	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact
4.4.20	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact	⚠️ Impacted	✅ No Impact

Revision History

Date	Revision
12/16/2024	Impacted versions changed from 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8, 4.4.20, 4.5.10, 4.5.11 to 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8, 4.4.20, 4.5.10, 4.5.11, 4.5.15
12/05/2024	Official summary revised: This is a double-free vulnerability found in OpenSSL's PEM_read_bio_ex function. In this case, PEM_read_bio_ex() when it returns a failure code under specific input but will populate the header argument with a pointer to a freed buffer. A double-free will occur if the caller also frees this buffer. This will most likely lead to a crash. This could be exploited by an attacker who can supply malicious PEM files for parsing to achieve a denial of service attack.The images where this vulnrability is have controls in place are not accessible outside the cluster. So the attacker needs to gain privileged access to the cluster to attempt this exploit. Even thenexploit is not easy because these containers do not allow execution of arbitrary code, which is necessary to exploit this. Impact of this exploit is also low, since container doesn't allow host breakout.
11/15/2024	Impacted versions changed from 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8, 4.4.20, 4.5.10 to 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8, 4.4.20, 4.5.10, 4.5.11
11/15/2024	Impacted versions changed from 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8, 4.4.20 to 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8, 4.4.20, 4.5.10
11/13/2024	Impacted versions changed from 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8 to 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8, 4.4.20
11/10/2024	Impacted versions changed from 4.5.4, 4.5.5 to 4.5.4, 4.5.5, 4.5.8
10/27/2024	Impacted versions changed from 4.5.4 to 4.5.4, 4.5.5