Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-30546

Memory Safety in Contiki-Ng ≤ 4.8

Published
26 April 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0064 47th percentile
Risk Priority 72 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-30546 is a critical-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 47th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Contiki-NG is an operating system for Internet of Things devices. An off-by-one error can be triggered in the Antelope database management system in the Contiki-NG operating system in versions 4.8 and prior. The problem exists in the Contiki File System…

more

(CFS) backend for the storage of data (file os/storage/antelope/storage-cfs.c). In the functions `storage_get_index` and `storage_put_index`, a buffer for merging two strings is allocated with one byte less than the maximum size of the merged strings, causing subsequent function calls to the cfs_open function to read from memory beyond the buffer size. The vulnerability has been patched in the "develop" branch of Contiki-NG, and is expected to be included in the next release. As a workaround, the problem can be fixed by applying the patch in Contiki-NG pull request #2425.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-50927Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2024-41125Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2023-37459Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2023-34100Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2023-37281Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2023-50926Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2023-34101Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2024-41126Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2023-48229Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng
CVE-2023-23609Same product: Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng

Affected Assets

contiki-ng
contiki-ng
≤ 4.8

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V6.2.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development and acceptance includes fuzzing and static analysis that detect out-of-bounds read defects before release.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record evidence of an out-of-bounds read but does not prevent the weakness itself.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and bounds checking that directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

prevents

Application security requirements include explicit bounds and memory-safety specifications that mitigate buffer over-reads.

prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles require memory-safe design patterns and runtime protections against out-of-bounds access.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and mandate bounds-checked reads, eliminating CWE-125.

References