CVE-2023-51787
📋 TL;DR
A memory leak vulnerability exists in Wind River VxWorks 7 when tasks or POSIX threads using OpenSSL exit without freeing allocated memory. This affects VxWorks 7 versions 22.09 and 23.03, potentially leading to resource exhaustion over time. Systems running these versions with OpenSSL-enabled tasks are vulnerable.
💻 Affected Systems
- Wind River VxWorks 7
📦 What is this software?
Vxworks by Windriver
Vxworks by Windriver
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Sustained exploitation could exhaust system memory, causing denial of service, system instability, or crashes in critical embedded systems.
Likely Case
Gradual memory consumption over time leading to performance degradation and eventual system instability requiring reboots.
If Mitigated
With proper monitoring and timely patching, impact is limited to minor performance issues that can be managed.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires triggering OpenSSL-using tasks to exit repeatedly, which could be done through normal system operations or targeted attacks.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: VxWorks 7 SR0620 for 22.09 and SR0630 for 23.03
Vendor Advisory: https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=cve&on=view&id=CVE-2023-51787
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download the appropriate Service Release from Wind River support portal. 2. Apply the patch following Wind River's update procedures. 3. Reboot affected systems to complete installation.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Monitor and Restart
allImplement memory monitoring and restart tasks before memory exhaustion occurs
Limit Task Creation
allReduce frequency of task/thread creation and destruction cycles involving OpenSSL
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement aggressive memory monitoring with alerts for abnormal consumption patterns
- Schedule regular system reboots to clear accumulated memory leaks
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check VxWorks version with 'uname -a' or system information commands, verify if version is 22.09 or 23.03Check Version:
uname -aVerify Fix Applied:
Verify system is running VxWorks 7 SR0620 (for 22.09) or SR0630 (for 23.09) or later📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Increasing memory usage over time without corresponding task growth
- System logs showing memory allocation failures
Network Indicators:
- Degrading system performance affecting network services
SIEM Query:
memory_usage > threshold AND os_version IN ('VxWorks 7 22.09', 'VxWorks 7 23.03')