CVE-2020-12885 : What You Need to Know

An infinite loop vulnerability was found in the CoAP library in Arm Mbed OS 5.15.3, potentially leading to resource exhaustion.

Understanding CVE-2020-12885

What is CVE-2020-12885?

An infinite loop issue in the CoAP parser of Arm Mbed OS 5.15.3 can cause excessive resource consumption due to a loop not terminating properly.

The Impact of CVE-2020-12885

The vulnerability could result in resource exhaustion, potentially affecting system performance and stability.

Technical Details of CVE-2020-12885

Vulnerability Description

The CoAP parser's loop in Arm Mbed OS 5.15.3 does not exit correctly when parsing options, leading to continuous resource consumption.

Affected Systems and Versions

Arm Mbed OS 5.15.3

Exploitation Mechanism

The issue arises from an incorrect loop exit condition calculation based on heap memory allocation, causing the loop to never terminate.

Mitigation and Prevention

Immediate Steps to Take

Apply patches or updates provided by Arm Mbed OS to address the infinite loop vulnerability.
Monitor system resources for any unusual consumption that may indicate exploitation.

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update and patch software to prevent known vulnerabilities.
Implement network monitoring to detect abnormal traffic patterns that could indicate an attack.

Patching and Updates

Ensure that Arm Mbed OS is updated to a version that includes a fix for the infinite loop vulnerability.