Cloud Vulnerability DB
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Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2021-42386
CVE-2021-42386:
NixOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation
Overview
CVE-2021-42386 is a use-after-free vulnerability discovered in BusyBox's awk applet that affects versions 1.16.0 through 1.33.1. The vulnerability occurs in the nvalloc function when processing a crafted awk pattern (Claroty Research, JFrog Blog).
Technical details
The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.2 (HIGH) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. The issue specifically occurs in the awk applet's nvalloc function when processing maliciously crafted awk patterns (NVD, NetApp Advisory).
Impact
When successfully exploited, this vulnerability can lead to denial of service conditions and potentially remote code execution. The vulnerability affects approximately 40% of examined embedded firmware images that contain BusyBox executables linked with the affected applets (JFrog Blog).
Mitigation and workarounds
The vulnerability has been fixed in BusyBox version 1.34.0. For systems unable to upgrade, a workaround is available by compiling BusyBox without the vulnerable functionality by commenting out CONFIG_AWK=y in the .config file after running make defconfig (JFrog Blog).
Additional resources
Source: This report was generated using AI
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