Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-42388

Cesanta Mongoose ≤ 7.14

Published
18 November 2024
Modified
19 November 2024
CVSS Score v3.1 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0030 22th percentile
Risk Priority 43 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-42388 is a medium-severity Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset (CWE-823) vulnerability in Cesanta Mongoose. 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 22th 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-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset vulnerability in Cesanta Mongoose Web Server v7.14 allows an attacker to send an unexpected TLS packet and force the application to read unintended heap memory space.

CWE(s)
CWE-823NVD-CWE-Other

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.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-42386Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2024-42389Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2024-42387Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2024-42383Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2024-42390Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2024-42391Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2023-34188Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2025-51495Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2024-42384Same product: Cesanta Mongoose
CVE-2023-2905Same product: Cesanta Mongoose

Affected Assets

cesanta
mongoose
≤ 7.14

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)
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis and fuzzing) directly finds unsafe pointer arithmetic before deployment.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate safe pointer usage and compiler/runtime checks that stop the weakness from being introduced.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Security engineering principles can require bounds-checked pointer arithmetic or safe language constructs that structurally avoid out-of-range offsets.

SC-39 Process Isolation partial match

Process isolation confines damage from invalid pointer offsets to a single address space, reducing overall impact.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory-protection controls limit the blast radius of an out-of-range pointer dereference without preventing or detecting the coding error itself.

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 directly require bounds-checked pointer arithmetic and static analysis to prevent out-of-range offsets.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

SAST/DAST tools used for vulnerability identification can surface this class of coding defect.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect out-of-range pointer offsets before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and bounds checking that can prevent out-of-range pointer offsets.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements include memory-safety rules that reduce pointer-offset errors.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
degrades

Secure architecture principles promote safe pointer handling and memory layout controls.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and require bounds checks.

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).

Windows 10 (1 rule)
  • V-220726 Data Execution Prevention (DEP) must be configured to at least OptOut. prevents CWE-823

References