CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-37459 — Contiki-NG is an operating system for internet-of-things devices

Medium CVSS 5.3

Contiki-NG is an operating system for internet-of-things devices. In versions 4.9 and prior, when a packet is received, the Contiki-NG network stack attempts to start the periodic TCP timer if it is a TCP packet with the SYN flag set. But the implementation does not first verify that a full TCP header has been received. Specifically, the implementation attempts to access the flags field from the TCP buffer in the following conditional expression in the `check_for_tcp_syn` function. For this reason, an attacker can inject a truncated TCP packet, which will lead to an out-of-bound read from the packet buffer. As of time of publication, a patched version is not available. As a workaround, one can apply the changes in Contiki-NG pull request #2510 to patch the system.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.3 (3.1)
Published
2023-09-15
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-125

Affected products

  • contiki-ng / contiki-ng

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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