Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-13903

Memory Safety in Quickjs-Ng Quickjs ≤ 0.9.0

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
21 March 2025
Modified
24 March 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0066 48th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-13903 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Quickjs-Ng Quickjs. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 48th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2024-13903 is a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability affecting the quickjs-ng QuickJS JavaScript engine in versions up to 0.9.0. The issue resides in the JS_GetRuntime function within the quickjs.c file of the qjs component. Manipulation of this function triggers the overflow, as classified under CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer), CWE-121 (Stack-based Buffer Overflow), and CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write). The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L), indicating moderate severity primarily impacting availability.

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely by unauthenticated attackers over a network with low complexity, but it requires user interaction to trigger. Successful exploitation results in limited denial-of-service effects, such as application crashes due to the stack overflow, with no impact on confidentiality or integrity.

Mitigation is addressed by upgrading to QuickJS version 0.9.0, which includes the fixing commit 99c02eb45170775a9a679c32b45dd4000ea67aff. Additional details are available in the project's GitHub issue #775 and release notes for v0.9.0.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability was found in quickjs-ng QuickJS up to 0.8.0. It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function JS_GetRuntime of the file quickjs.c of the component qjs. The manipulation leads to stack-based buffer overflow. The…

more

attack can be launched remotely. Upgrading to version 0.9.0 is able to address this issue. The patch is named 99c02eb45170775a9a679c32b45dd4000ea67aff. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

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-2025-4843Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2025-8846Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2026-4183Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2025-5503Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2025-5847Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2026-4213Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2025-9791Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2026-5213Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2025-9938Shared CWE-119, CWE-121
CVE-2025-1187Shared CWE-119, CWE-121

Affected Assets

quickjs-ng
quickjs
≤ 0.9.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and analysis can discover stack-buffer overflows before deployment.

Input validation directly stops untrusted data from exceeding stack buffer bounds.

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the ability to execute injected code after a stack overflow.

Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.

Secure engineering principles require memory-safe design and coding that structurally avoids buffer-boundary violations.

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 SDLC practices (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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 catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

prevents

Change management can enforce review gates that catch unsafe memory operations before deployment.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248594 OL 8 must implement address space layout randomization (ASLR) to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution. prevents CWE-121
Oracle Linux 9 (1 rule)
  • V-271452 OL 9 must use a Linux Security Module configured to enforce limits on system services. prevents CWE-121

References