GHSA-3jxq-xx8g-q8j2: Out-of-bounds read in Zephyr DNS resolver TXT/SRV record parsing (unvalidated `rdlength`)
Zephyr's DNS resolver (subsys/net/lib/dns) parses resource records from DNS responses in dnsunpackanswer(), which validated only the fixed RR header (type, class, TTL, rdlength) and accepted any attacker-declared rdlength, including one extending past the end of the received datagram. The TXT and SRV consumers in dnsvalidaterecord() (resolve.c) then read up to rdlength bytes (clamped only to a record-type maximum such as DNSMAXTEXTSIZE, default 64, not to the packet) from the receive buffer via memcpy without their own bounds check, and pass the result to the application's resolve callback. A malicious or spoofed DNS server, an on-path attacker forging UDP DNS replies, or (with mDNS/LLMNR enabled) any LAN node can craft a truncated TXT or SRV response that causes an out-of-bounds read of adjacent receive-pool memory; the disclosed stale bytes (residual contents of prior DNS packets / uninitialized pool memory) are returned to the application as TXT/SRV record contents, an information leak, and may in some configurations cross the allocation boundary and fault, causing a denial of service. The read is bounded (~64 bytes for TXT, ~6 for SRV) and read-only (no write). The fix rejects any record whose declared rdata extends past dnsmsg->msgsize at the single chokepoint in dnsunpackanswer(). Affected: v4.3.0 and v4.4.0.
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Compensating control
In Zephyr DNS resolver subsys/net/lib/dns, make dns_unpack_answer() reject any resource record whose declared rdata (rdlength) extends past dns_msg->msg_size before TXT/SRV parsing.