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CapnprotoApplication

CVE-2023-48230

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-21
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Cap'n Proto is a data interchange format and capability-based RPC system. In versions 1.0 and 1.0.1, when using the KJ HTTP library with WebSocket compression enabled, a buffer underrun can be caused by a remote peer. The underrun always writes a constant value that is not attacker-controlled, likely resulting in a crash, enabling a remote denial-of-service attack. Most Cap'n Proto and KJ users are unlikely to have this functionality enabled and so unlikely to be affected. Maintainers suspect only the Cloudflare Workers Runtime is affected. If KJ HTTP is used with WebSocket compression enabled, a malicious peer may be able to cause a buffer underrun on a heap-allocated buffer. KJ HTTP is an optional library bundled with Cap'n Proto, but is not directly used by Cap'n Proto. WebSocket compression is disabled by default. It must be enabled via a setting passed to the KJ HTTP library via `HttpClientSettings` or `HttpServerSettings`. The bytes written out-of-bounds are always a specific constant 4-byte string `{ 0x00, 0x00, 0xFF, 0xFF }`. Because this string is not controlled by the attacker, maintainers believe it is unlikely that remote code execution is possible. However, it cannot be ruled out. This functionality first appeared in Cap'n Proto 1.0. Previous versions are not affected. This issue is fixed in Cap'n Proto 1.0.1.1.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
CapnprotoApplication
Affected:= 1.0.0= 1.0.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Cap'n Proto 1.0.1.1 or latest stable release

  1. 1. Identify all Cap'n Proto deployments using versions 1.0.0 or 1.0.1
  2. 2. If KJ HTTP library with WebSocket compression is in use, verify whether compression is enabled via HttpClientSettings or HttpServerSettings
  3. 3. If WebSocket compression is enabled, the deployment is vulnerable; if disabled (default), the deployment is not affected
  4. 4. Upgrade Cap'n Proto to version 1.0.1.1 or later to remediate this vulnerability
Caveat Minimal - only affects users who explicitly enabled WebSocket compression in KJ HTTP; the upgrade is a patch fix within the 1.0.x series

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

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