CVE-2025-30356
📋 TL;DR
A heap buffer overflow vulnerability in CryptoLib's SDLS-EP implementation allows attackers to craft malicious frames that cause negative payload lengths to be interpreted as large unsigned values, leading to memory corruption. This affects spacecraft communications secured with CryptoLib versions 1.3.3 and earlier. The vulnerability enables potential remote code execution or denial of service attacks.
💻 Affected Systems
- NASA CryptoLib
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution leading to complete compromise of spacecraft communications, potential command injection, or ground station compromise.
Likely Case
Denial of service through application crashes, memory corruption, or disruption of spacecraft-ground communications.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper network segmentation and input validation are in place, though risk remains due to protocol-level vulnerability.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires crafting specific malicious frames but doesn't require authentication. No public exploit code known at this time.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.3.4 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/nasa/CryptoLib/security/advisories/GHSA-6w2x-w7w3-85w2
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update CryptoLib to version 1.3.4 or later. 2. Apply commit 59d1bce7608c94c6131ef4877535075b0649799c. 3. Rebuild and redeploy affected cFS applications. 4. Restart spacecraft and ground station services.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Enhancement
allAdd additional validation for frame length fields before processing
// Custom validation: if (fl < MIN_VALID_LENGTH || fl > MAX_VALID_LENGTH) reject_frame();
Network Segmentation
allIsolate spacecraft communications to dedicated, monitored networks
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network filtering to allow only trusted ground stations
- Deploy intrusion detection systems monitoring for anomalous frame patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check CryptoLib version: grep -r 'CRYPTOLIB_VERSION' source files or check build configurationCheck Version:
grep -i 'version' CryptoLib/README.md or check package managerVerify Fix Applied:
Verify version is 1.3.4+ and commit 59d1bce7608c94c6131ef4877535075b0649799c is present📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crashes in Crypto_TC_ApplySecurity
- Memory corruption errors
- Unexpected large memory allocations
Network Indicators:
- Malformed SDLS-EP frames with unusual length fields
- Rapid sequence of connection attempts
SIEM Query:
source="cfs_logs" AND ("heap corruption" OR "buffer overflow" OR "Crypto_TC_ApplySecurity")