CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2023-5632NVD status: Analyzed

Mosquitto: Excessive Iteration

CVE-2023-5632 is a high-severity excessive iteration vulnerability in Mosquitto from Eclipse Foundation, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected Mosquitto versions: 2.0.5 and earlier. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.8% chance of exploitation within 30 days, higher than 57% of scored CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of Mosquitto you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
  2. Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
EclipseMosquitto2.0.5 and earlierNot stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
NoneNo account or login is needed.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
NoneNo data is disclosed.
Integrity
NoneNothing can be modified.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. Scored by NVD.

Scoring systemScoreSeverityScored by
CVSS 3.17.5HighCNA (eclipse.org)
CVSS 3.17.5HighNVD

Official description

In Eclipse Mosquito before and including 2.0.5, establishing a connection to the mosquitto server without sending data causes the EPOLLOUT event to be added, which results excessive CPU consumption. This could be used by a malicious actor to perform denial of service type attack. This issue is fixed in 2.0.6

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Excessive Iteration

The product performs an iteration or loop without sufficiently limiting the number of times that the loop is executed.

More Excessive Iteration vulnerabilities (CWE-834)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: yes, technical impact: partial).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in Mosquitto

All Mosquitto vulnerabilities

Recent Excessive Iteration vulnerabilities

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