CVE-2023-41325: OP-TEE double free in shdr_verify_signature

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.7 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2023-09-15 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-415

Description

OP-TEE is a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) designed as companion to a non-secure Linux kernel running on Arm; Cortex-A cores using the TrustZone technology. Starting in version 3.20 and prior to version 3.22, `shdr_verify_signature` can make a double free. `shdr_verify_signature` used to verify a TA binary before it is loaded. To verify a signature of it, allocate a memory for RSA key. RSA key allocate function (`sw_crypto_acipher_alloc_rsa_public_key`) will try to allocate a memory (which is optee’s heap memory). RSA key is consist of exponent and modulus (represent as variable `e`, `n`) and it allocation is not atomic way, so it may succeed in `e` but fail in `n`. In this case sw_crypto_acipher_alloc_rsa_public_key` will free on `e` and return as it is failed but variable ‘e’ is remained as already freed memory address . `shdr_verify_signature` will free again that memory (which is `e`) even it is freed when it failed allocate RSA key. A patch is available in version 3.22. No known workarounds are available.

Affected products

Linaro/OP-TEE OP-TEE: from 3.20.0 before 3.22.0; 3.22.0-rc1 — fixed in 3.22.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linaro/OP-TEE OP-TEE 3.22.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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