CVE-2021-25217

Public Exploit
A buffer overrun in lease file parsing code can be used to exploit a common vulnerability shared by dhcpd and dhclient

Description

In ISC DHCP 4.1-ESV-R1 -> 4.1-ESV-R16, ISC DHCP 4.4.0 -> 4.4.2 (Other branches of ISC DHCP (i.e., releases in the 4.0.x series or lower and releases in the 4.3.x series) are beyond their End-of-Life (EOL) and no longer supported by ISC. From inspection it is clear that the defect is also present in releases from those series, but they have not been officially tested for the vulnerability), The outcome of encountering the defect while reading a lease that will trigger it varies, according to: the component being affected (i.e., dhclient or dhcpd) whether the package was built as a 32-bit or 64-bit binary whether the compiler flag -fstack-protection-strong was used when compiling In dhclient, ISC has not successfully reproduced the error on a 64-bit system. However, on a 32-bit system it is possible to cause dhclient to crash when reading an improper lease, which could cause network connectivity problems for an affected system due to the absence of a running DHCP client process. In dhcpd, when run in DHCPv4 or DHCPv6 mode: if the dhcpd server binary was built for a 32-bit architecture AND the -fstack-protection-strong flag was specified to the compiler, dhcpd may exit while parsing a lease file containing an objectionable lease, resulting in lack of service to clients. Additionally, the offending lease and the lease immediately following it in the lease database may be improperly deleted. if the dhcpd server binary was built for a 64-bit architecture OR if the -fstack-protection-strong compiler flag was NOT specified, the crash will not occur, but it is possible for the offending lease and the lease which immediately followed it to be improperly deleted.

Remediation

Solution:

  • Upgrade to the patched release most closely related to your current version of ISC DHCP: ISC DHCP 4.1-ESV-R16-P1 ISC DHCP 4.4.2-P1

Workaround:

  • None known.

Category

7.4
CVSS
Severity: High
CVSS 3.1 •
CVSS 2.0 •
EPSS 0.32%
Vendor Advisory fedoraproject.org Vendor Advisory fedoraproject.org Vendor Advisory gentoo.org Vendor Advisory isc.org
Affected: ISC ISC DHCP
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2021-25217?
CVE-2021-25217 has been scored as a high severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2021-25217?
To fix CVE-2021-25217: Upgrade to the patched release most closely related to your current version of ISC DHCP: ISC DHCP 4.1-ESV-R16-P1 ISC DHCP 4.4.2-P1
Is CVE-2021-25217 being actively exploited in the wild?
It is possible that CVE-2021-25217 is being exploited or will be exploited in a near future based on public information. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2021-25217?
CVE-2021-25217 affects ISC ISC DHCP.
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