CVE-2024-48985
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in MBed OS 6.16.0 allows attackers to trigger a buffer overflow during HCI packet processing, leading to arbitrary memory writes. Attackers can overwrite critical pointers and state variables to write packet data to arbitrary memory locations. This affects systems using MBed OS 6.16.0 with BLE connectivity enabled.
💻 Affected Systems
- MBed OS
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system compromise via arbitrary code execution, potentially leading to device takeover and lateral movement in IoT networks.
Likely Case
Denial of service, memory corruption, and potential data leakage from affected devices.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper network segmentation and input validation are in place, though memory corruption may still occur.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires crafting malicious HCI packets and proximity/access to BLE interface.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Fixed in PR #384, check for MBed OS versions after 6.16.0
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/mbed-ce/mbed-os/pull/384
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update MBed OS to version with PR #384 applied. 2. Rebuild and redeploy firmware. 3. Restart affected devices.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable BLE connectivity
allTemporarily disable BLE feature if not required
Disable FEATURE_BLE in mbed_app.json or build configuration
Network segmentation
allIsolate BLE networks from critical infrastructure
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict BLE access controls and device authentication
- Deploy network monitoring for anomalous HCI packet patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if using MBed OS 6.16.0 with BLE enabled. Review source code at hci_tr.c line 200 for missing allocation failure handling.Check Version:
Check MBed OS version in mbed-os.lib or via mbed CLI: mbed --versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify PR #384 is applied in your MBed OS version. Check that hciTrSerialRxIncoming properly handles allocation failures.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Memory allocation failures in BLE stack
- Unexpected device resets during BLE operations
- HCI packet size anomalies
Network Indicators:
- Abnormally large HCI packets
- Malformed BLE protocol sequences
SIEM Query:
Search for: 'MBed OS' AND ('buffer overflow' OR 'allocation failure' OR 'HCI packet size')