Input validation error in ESP-IDF - CVE-2018-18558
Published: September 10, 2019
Vulnerability identifier: #VU20953
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:P/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2018-18558
CWE-ID: CWE-20
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: Espressif Systems
Affected software:
ESP-IDF
ESP-IDF
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system.
The vulnerability exists due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input in the 2nd stage bootloader. A local attacker with physical access can craft an application binary that overwrites a bootloader code segment in "process_segment" in "components/bootloader_support/src/esp_image_format.c.", bypass secure boot checks and execute arbitrary code on the target system.
Note: The attack is effective when the flash encryption feature is not enabled, or if the attacker finds a different vulnerability that allows them to write this binary to flash memory.
How to mitigate CVE-2018-18558
Install updates from vendor's website.