CVE-2024-11033
📋 TL;DR
A Denial of Service vulnerability in binary-husky/gpt_academic version 3.83 allows attackers to crash the server by uploading files with excessively long filenames. This affects all users running the vulnerable version of this academic GPT tool. The server becomes unavailable to legitimate users during the attack.
💻 Affected Systems
- binary-husky/gpt_academic
📦 What is this software?
Gpt Academic by Binary Husky
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete service unavailability for all users until server restart, potentially causing data loss or corruption of ongoing academic work.
Likely Case
Temporary service disruption affecting multiple users, requiring manual intervention to restart the service.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper input validation and rate limiting in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploit requires only HTTP POST request with crafted filename, making it trivial to execute.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Version after 3.83
Vendor Advisory: https://huntr.com/bounties/78afc15c-7db7-42fe-90f5-a0480a2ec222
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update to latest version of gpt_academic. 2. Restart the application service. 3. Verify the fix by testing file upload functionality.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Filename Length Restriction
allImplement server-side validation to limit filename length before processing.
# In your file upload handler, add: if len(filename) > 255: return error
Rate Limiting
allImplement rate limiting on file upload endpoints to prevent rapid exploitation.
# Use web server rate limiting: nginx: limit_req_zone, apache: mod_ratelimit
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable file upload functionality entirely if not required
- Implement WAF rules to block requests with excessively long filenames
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Test file upload with filename exceeding 1000 characters - if service crashes or becomes unresponsive, vulnerable.Check Version:
Check package version or application configuration for gpt_academic versionVerify Fix Applied:
Attempt same test with long filename - should receive proper error response without service disruption.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- HTTP 413 errors
- Application crash logs
- Unusually long filenames in access logs
Network Indicators:
- Multiple POST requests to upload endpoint with large Content-Length headers
- Abnormal request patterns to file upload URLs
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND (uri_path="/upload" OR uri_path="*file*upload*") AND (filename_length>500 OR content_length>1000000)