CVE-2020-35864
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in the Rust flatbuffers crate allows attackers to perform unsafe memory operations through safe-looking functions, potentially leading to memory corruption. It affects any Rust application using vulnerable versions of the flatbuffers crate for serialization/deserialization.
💻 Affected Systems
- Rust applications using flatbuffers crate
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution leading to complete system compromise through memory corruption attacks like buffer overflows or use-after-free.
Likely Case
Application crashes, denial of service, or data corruption due to invalid memory access.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if application runs with minimal privileges and proper memory safety controls.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires crafting malicious flatbuffer data that triggers unsafe memory operations during deserialization.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: flatbuffers crate version 0.6.2 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2020-0009.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update Cargo.toml to require flatbuffers >= 0.6.2
2. Run 'cargo update' to fetch new version
3. Rebuild and redeploy application
4. Restart affected services
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation
allValidate all flatbuffer input before processing with read_scalar functions
Sandbox Execution
allRun vulnerable applications in containers or sandboxes with limited privileges
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict input validation for all flatbuffer data
- Isolate vulnerable applications in network segments with limited access
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Cargo.lock or run 'cargo tree | grep flatbuffers' to see if version <= 0.6.1 is usedCheck Version:
cargo tree | grep flatbuffersVerify Fix Applied:
Verify flatbuffers version >= 0.6.2 in Cargo.lock after update📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crashes with memory access errors
- Segmentation faults in Rust processes
Network Indicators:
- Unusual flatbuffer data patterns in network traffic
SIEM Query:
process.name:rust AND (event.type:crash OR error.message:"memory" OR error.message:"segmentation")