Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-38373

Memory Safety in Amazon Freertos-Plus-Tcp 4.0.0 – 4.1.1

Published
24 June 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.6
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0062 46th percentile
Risk Priority 67 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-38373 is a critical-severity Buffer Over-read (CWE-126) vulnerability in Amazon Freertos-Plus-Tcp. Its CVSS base score is 9.6 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 46th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

FreeRTOS-Plus-TCP is a lightweight TCP/IP stack for FreeRTOS. FreeRTOS-Plus-TCP versions 4.0.0 through 4.1.0 contain a buffer over-read issue in the DNS Response Parser when parsing domain names in a DNS response. A carefully crafted DNS response with domain name length…

more

value greater than the actual domain name length, could cause the parser to read beyond the DNS response buffer. This issue affects applications using DNS functionality of the FreeRTOS-Plus-TCP stack. Applications that do not use DNS functionality are not affected, even when the DNS functionality is enabled. This vulnerability has been patched in version 4.1.1.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003 OS Credential Dumping Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login and credential material, normally in the form of a hash or a clear text password.
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-7425Same product: Amazon Freertos-Plus-Tcp
CVE-2025-11617Same product: Amazon Freertos-Plus-Tcp
CVE-2025-11616Same product: Amazon Freertos-Plus-Tcp
CVE-2025-11618Same product: Amazon Freertos-Plus-Tcp
CVE-2023-23933Same vendor: Amazon
CVE-2023-24513Same vendor: Amazon
CVE-2026-0930Shared CWE-125, CWE-126
CVE-2024-7347Shared CWE-125, CWE-126
CVE-2023-21667Shared CWE-125, CWE-126
CVE-2024-33064Shared CWE-125, CWE-126

Affected Assets

amazon
freertos-plus-tcp
4.0.0 — 4.1.1

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, bounds checking tests) directly finds buffer over-read flaws.

Engineering principles such as memory-safe design and bounds-checked abstractions structurally stop introduction of out-of-bounds reads.

Process isolation limits the blast radius of an over-read to the compromised domain.

Input validation enforces length and index constraints that prevent many externally triggered over-reads.

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 directly prevent introduction of buffer over-read weaknesses.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover buffer over-read flaws via scanning or review.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching or replacing vulnerable software removes known instances of buffer over-read bugs.

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 can detect buffer over-reads 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 SDLC mandates input validation and bounds checking that can prevent buffer over-reads.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify buffer-size and bounds-checking rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety and bounds-checking design choices.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require bounds-checked buffer access, mitigating over-reads.

References