CVE-2024-2398: 
cURL vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2024-2398 is a memory leak vulnerability in curl versions 7.44.0 to 8.6.0, discovered on March 5, 2024. When an application configures libcurl to use HTTP/2 server push and the received headers for the push exceed the maximum allowed limit (1000), libcurl fails to free all previously allocated headers during abort, resulting in memory leaks. This error condition occurs silently, making it difficult for applications to detect (Curl Advisory).

The vulnerability occurs when processing HTTP/2 PUSH_PROMISE frames with excessive headers, potentially leading to multiple megabytes of memory being leaked per response. The issue affects the relatively rarely used HTTP/2 server push feature. The vulnerability is classified as CWE-772: Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime, with a severity rating of Medium. The flaw was introduced in commit ea7134ac and fixed in curl version 8.7.0 through commit deca803 (Curl Advisory).

The primary impact of this vulnerability is a potential Denial of Service (DoS) through memory leakage. If a server sends many PUSH_PROMISE frames with an excessive amount of headers, it can lead to significant memory leaks per response, potentially affecting system stability and performance (NetApp Advisory).

There are three recommended mitigation strategies: 1) Upgrade curl to version 8.7.0 or later, which includes the fix for this vulnerability, 2) Apply the patch to your local version, or 3) Disable HTTP/2 server push functionality if not required. The fix ensures that the entire set of headers is properly freed on errors (Curl Advisory).

Multiple vendors and organizations have responded to this vulnerability. Apple has included fixes in their macOS updates for Sonoma, Ventura, and Monterey (Apple Support). Red Hat and Fedora have also released updates to address this vulnerability in their distributions (Fedora Update).