CVE-2024-1394: Golang-fips/openssl: memory leaks in code encrypting and decrypting rsa payloads

A memory leak flaw was found in the RSA encrypting/decrypting code which might lead to a resource exhaustion vulnerability, as it is theoretically exploitable using attacker-controlled inputs​. The memory leak happens in github.com/golang-fips/openssl/openssl/rsa.go#L113. The objects leaked are pkey​ and ctx​. That function uses named return parameters to free pkey​ and ctx​ if there is an error initializing the context or setting the different properties. Unfortunately, notice that all the return statements related to error cases follow the "return nil, nil, fail(...)" pattern, which means that pkey​ and ctx​ will be nil inside the deferred function that should free them.

— Red Hat

Using crafted public RSA keys which are not compliant with SP 800-56B can cause a small memory leak when encrypting and verifying payloads.

An attacker can leverage this flaw to gradually erode available memory to the point where the host crashes for lack of resources. Upon restart the attacker would have to begin again, but nevertheless there is the potential to deny service.

— GitHub