CVE-2023-22796 Explained : Impact and Mitigation

This article provides detailed information about CVE-2023-22796, a denial of service vulnerability in Active Support.

Understanding CVE-2023-22796

CVE-2023-22796 is a regular expression-based denial of service vulnerability in Active Support versions prior to 6.1.7.1 and 7.0.4.1. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by passing a specially crafted string to the underscore method, causing the regular expression engine to enter a state of catastrophic backtracking. This can lead to high CPU and memory usage, potentially resulting in a denial of service condition.

What is CVE-2023-22796?

CVE-2023-22796 is classified as a denial of service vulnerability, specifically a ReDoS-based DoS vulnerability in Active Support, a component of the Ruby on Rails framework.

The Impact of CVE-2023-22796

The impact of this vulnerability includes the potential for an attacker to trigger a denial of service condition on systems running affected versions of Active Support. This can disrupt services, consume excessive system resources, and potentially lead to system unavailability.

Technical Details of CVE-2023-22796

The technical details of CVE-2023-22796 highlight the vulnerability description, affected systems and versions, and the exploitation mechanism.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability arises from a flaw in how Active Support processes specially crafted input when using the underscore method, leading to excessive resource consumption and a denial of service condition.

Affected Systems and Versions

Active Support versions prior to 6.1.7.1 and 7.0.4.1 are affected by CVE-2023-22796. Users running these versions are at risk of exploitation and potential denial of service attacks.

Exploitation Mechanism

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by providing a specially crafted string to the underscore method in Active Support, causing the regular expression engine to enter a state of catastrophic backtracking, resulting in resource exhaustion.

Mitigation and Prevention

Mitigating CVE-2023-22796 involves taking immediate steps to address the vulnerability and adopting long-term security practices.

Immediate Steps to Take

Users of Active Support should update their systems to versions 6.1.7.1 or 7.0.4.1 to mitigate the vulnerability. Additionally, monitoring system resources for unusual spikes in CPU and memory usage can help detect potential exploitation attempts.

Long-Term Security Practices

Implementing secure coding practices, conducting regular security audits, and staying informed about security advisories can help prevent similar vulnerabilities in the future.

Patching and Updates

Regularly applying security patches and updates released by the Active Support maintainers is crucial to maintain a secure environment and mitigate known vulnerabilities like CVE-2023-22796.