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RUSTSEC-2024-0406

BTreeMap memory leak when deallocating nodes with overflows

Reported
Issued
Package
ic-stable-structures (crates.io)
Type
Vulnerability
Categories
Keywords
#canister #icp #memory-leak #stable-memory
Aliases
References
CVSS Score
5.9 MEDIUM
CVSS Details
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Patched
  • >=0.6.4
Unaffected
  • <0.6.0

Description

When storing unbounded types in a BTreeMap, a node is represented as a linked list of "memory chunks". In some cases, when we deallocate a node only the first memory chunk is deallocated, and the rest of the memory chunks remain (incorrectly) allocated, causing a memory leak.

In the worst case, depending on how a canister uses the BTreeMap, an adversary could interact with the canister through its API and trigger interactions with the map that keep consuming memory due to the memory leak. This could potentially lead to using an excessive amount of memory, or even running out of memory.

This issue has been fixed in dfinity/stable-structures/pull/212 by changing the logic for deallocating nodes to ensure that all of a node's memory chunks are deallocated. Tests have been added to prevent regressions of this nature moving forward.

Note: Users of stable-structure < 0.6.0 are not affected.

Workarounds

Users who are not storing unbounded types in BTreeMap are not affected and do not need to upgrade. Otherwise, an upgrade to version 0.6.4 is necessary.

References

Advisory available under CC0-1.0 license.