CVE-2024-21836
Published: 26 February 2024
Summary
CVE-2024-21836 is a high-severity Integer Overflow or Wraparound (CWE-190) vulnerability in Ggml Llama.Cpp. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 39.8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as NLP and Transformers; in the Data-Related Vulnerabilities risk domain.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-19448
Vulnerability details
A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the GGUF library header.n_tensors functionality of llama.cpp Commit 18c2e17. A specially crafted .gguf file can lead to code execution. An attacker can provide a malicious file to trigger this vulnerability.
- CWE(s)
AI Security AnalysisAI
- AI Category
- NLP and Transformers
- Risk Domain
- Data-Related Vulnerabilities
- OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
- None mapped
- Classification Reason
- llama.cpp is a C++ inference engine for LLaMA models, which are transformer-based LLMs. The vulnerability is in the GGUF library used for parsing LLM model files in llama.cpp, directly related to NLP and transformer model handling.
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Heap-based buffer overflow in GGUF file parsing enables arbitrary code execution upon loading a specially crafted .gguf model file in llama.cpp, facilitating Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203).
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Out-of-bounds writes that corrupt control flow or inject shellcode are rendered non-executable by the same memory protections.