#VU17361 Memory leak in systemd-journald - CVE-2019-3815

Vulnerability identifier: #VU17361

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 4.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2019-3815

CWE-ID: CWE-401

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
systemd-journald
Client/Desktop applications / Other client software

Vendor: Freedesktop.org

Description
The vulnerability allows a local attacker to cause DoS condition on the target system.

The weakness exists due to the function dispatch_message_real() in journald-server.c does not free the memory allocated by set_iovec_field_free() to store the `_CMDLINE=` entry. A local attacker can trigger memory leak in journald-server.c and cause the service to crash.

The vulnerability exists due to insufficient fix for CVE-2018-16864.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

systemd-journald: All versions

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External links
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-3815
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0201

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.