CVE-2023-24818: RIOT-OS vulnerable to null pointer dereference during fragment forwarding

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2023-04-24 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

RIOT-OS, an operating system that supports Internet of Things devices, contains a network stack with the ability to process 6LoWPAN frames. Prior to version 2022.10, an attacker can send a crafted frame to the device resulting in a NULL pointer dereference. During forwarding of a fragment an uninitialized entry in the reassembly buffer is used. The NULL pointer dereference triggers a hard fault exception resulting in denial of service. Version 2022.10 fixes this issue. As a workaround, disable support for fragmented IP datagrams or apply the patches manually.

Affected products

RIOT-OS RIOT: before 2022.10 — fixed in 2022.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: RIOT-OS RIOT 2022.10. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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