CVE-2020-35866
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in the rusqlite crate for Rust allows memory safety violations through VTab/VTabCursor interfaces, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. It affects Rust applications using rusqlite versions before 0.23.0 for SQLite database operations.
💻 Affected Systems
- rusqlite crate for Rust
📦 What is this software?
Rusqlite by Rusqlite Project
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution leading to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, or ransomware deployment.
Likely Case
Application crash or denial of service, with potential for memory corruption leading to information disclosure.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper sandboxing and privilege separation, potentially only causing application instability.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires crafting malicious VTab/VTabCursor operations, but no public exploit code is known.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 0.23.0 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2020-0014.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update Cargo.toml to require rusqlite >=0.23.0
2. Run 'cargo update rusqlite'
3. Rebuild and redeploy your application
4. Restart affected services
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable VTab functionality
allDisable virtual table support if not required
Configure rusqlite without 'vtab' feature flag in Cargo.toml
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict input validation and sanitization for all database operations
- Deploy application in sandboxed/containerized environment with minimal privileges
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Cargo.lock or run 'cargo tree | grep rusqlite' to see installed versionCheck Version:
grep rusqlite Cargo.lock | head -1Verify Fix Applied:
Verify rusqlite version is >=0.23.0 in Cargo.lock and application functions correctly📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crashes with memory corruption errors
- Unexpected database connection failures
Network Indicators:
- Unusual database query patterns
- Excessive failed SQL operations
SIEM Query:
source="application_logs" AND ("segmentation fault" OR "memory corruption" OR "rusqlite")