CVE-2023-6193 : Security Advisory and Response

This CVE record, assigned by Cloudflare, pertains to the vulnerability identified as unbounded queuing of path validation messages in cloudflare-quiche, affecting versions 0.15.0 through 0.19.0.

Understanding CVE-2023-6193

This vulnerability in cloudflare-quiche, versions 0.15.0 through 0.19.0, can lead to excessive resource consumption due to unbounded queuing of path validation messages.

What is CVE-2023-6193?

The vulnerability in cloudflare-quiche allows unauthenticated remote attackers to exploit the unbounded queuing of path validation messages. This exploitation could result in excessive resource utilization as the attacker manipulates the connection, causing storage of path validation data in an unbounded queue.

The Impact of CVE-2023-6193

The impact of CVE-2023-6193 is categorized under CAPEC-130 (Excessive Allocation) and CAPEC-272 (Protocol Manipulation), highlighting the potential risks of resource consumption and protocol manipulation associated with this vulnerability.

Technical Details of CVE-2023-6193

The vulnerability description involves the unbounded queuing of path validation messages in cloudflare-quiche, versions 0.15.0 through 0.19.0, leading to excessive resource consumption.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability arises from the improper handling of PATH_CHALLENGE and PATH_RESPONSE frames, allowing attackers to cause unbounded queuing of path validation messages, which can exhaust system resources.

Affected Systems and Versions

Cloudflare's quiche package is impacted by this vulnerability in versions 0.15.0 through 0.19.0.

Exploitation Mechanism

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by manipulating the connection, restricting the peer's congestion window size, and causing the storage of path validation data in an unbounded queue.

Mitigation and Prevention

To address CVE-2023-6193 and mitigate its risks, immediate steps and long-term security practices should be implemented.

Immediate Steps to Take

Users are advised to update cloudflare-quiche to versions greater than 0.19.0 to address this vulnerability.
Network administrators should monitor and restrict unauthorized access to mitigate potential exploitation of this vulnerability.

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update software and packages to ensure the latest security patches are applied.
Implement network security measures to detect and prevent unauthorized access and manipulation of network traffic.

Patching and Updates

Cloudflare has released versions higher than 0.19.0 of the quiche package, which include fixes for the unbounded queuing vulnerability. It is recommended to promptly apply these patches to secure systems against potential exploitation.