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[Issue Resolved, Please Upgrade] libp2p DoS vulnerability from lack of resource management

High
p-shahi published GHSA-f44q-634c-jvwv Dec 7, 2022

Package

npm js-libp2p (npm)

Affected versions

< 0.38.0

Patched versions

>= 0.38.0

Description

Impact

Versions older than v0.38.0 of js-libp2p are vulnerable to targeted resource exhaustion attacks. These attacks target libp2p’s connection, stream, peer, and memory management. An attacker can cause the allocation of large amounts of memory, ultimately leading to the process getting killed by the host’s operating system. While a connection manager tasked with keeping the number of connections within manageable limits has been part of js-libp2p, this component was designed to handle the regular churn of peers, not a targeted resource exhaustion attack.

Patches (What to do as a js-libp2p consumer:)

Update your js-libp2p dependency to v0.38.0 or greater.

Workarounds

There are no workarounds, and so we recommend to upgrade your js-libp2p version.
Some range of attacks can be mitigated using OS tools (like manually blocking malicious peers using iptables or ufw ) or making use of a load balancer in front of libp2p nodes.
You can also use the allow deny list in js-libp2p to deny specific peers.

However these require direct action & responsibility on your part and are no substitutes for upgrading js-libp2p. Therefore, we highly recommend upgrading your js-libp2p version for the way it enables tighter scoped limits and provides visibility into and easier reasoning about js-libp2p resource utilization.

References

Please see the related disclosure for go-libp2p: GHSA-j7qp-mfxf-8xjw and rust-libp2p: GHSA-jvgw-gccv-q5p8

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email us at [email protected].

Severity

High

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
Network
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:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2022-23487

Weaknesses

No CWEs