#VU96745 Incorrect Regular Expression in Python - CVE-2024-6232

Vulnerability identifier: #VU96745

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 6.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2024-6232

CWE-ID: CWE-185

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Python
Universal components / Libraries / Scripting languages

Vendor: Python.org

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to insufficient validation of .tar archives when processing it with regular expressions. A remote attacker can pass specially crafted data to the application and perform regular expression denial of service (ReDos) attack.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Python: 3.8 - 3.8.19, 3.9.0b4 - 3.9.19, 3.10.0 - 3.12.5

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External links
https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/121286
https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/121285
https://mail.python.org/archives/list/security-announce@python.org/thread/JRYFTPRHZRTLMZLWQEUHZSJXNHM4ACTY/
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/4eaf4891c12589e3c7bdad5f5b076e4c8392dd06
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/743acbe872485dc18df4d8ab2dc7895187f062c4
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/d449caf8a179e3b954268b3a88eb9170be3c8fbf
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/ed3a49ea734ada357ff4442996fd4ae71d253373

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

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