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NetatalkApplication

CVE-2024-38440

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-06-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.4.1 / 3.1.19 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Netatalk before 3.2.1 has an off-by-one error, and resultant heap-based buffer overflow and segmentation violation, because of incorrectly using FPLoginExt in BN_bin2bn in etc/uams/uams_dhx_pam.c. The original issue 1097 report stated: 'The latest version of Netatalk (v3.2.0) contains a security vulnerability. This vulnerability arises due to a lack of validation for the length field after parsing user-provided data, leading to an out-of-bounds heap write of one byte (\0). Under specific configurations, this can result in reading metadata of the next heap block, potentially causing a Denial of Service (DoS) under certain heap layouts or with ASAN enabled. ... The vulnerability is located in the FPLoginExt operation of Netatalk, in the BN_bin2bn function found in /etc/uams/uams_dhx_pam.c ... if (!(bn = BN_bin2bn((unsigned char *)ibuf, KEYSIZE, NULL))) ... threads ... [#0] Id 1, Name: "afpd", stopped 0x7ffff4304e58 in ?? (), reason: SIGSEGV ... [#0] 0x7ffff4304e58 mov BYTE PTR [r14+0x8], 0x0 ... mov rdx, QWORD PTR [rsp+0x18] ... afp_login_ext(obj=<optimized out>, ibuf=0x62d000010424 "", ibuflen=0xffffffffffff0015, rbuf=<optimized out>, rbuflen=<optimized out>) ... afp_over_dsi(obj=0x5555556154c0 <obj>).' 2.4.1 and 3.1.19 are also fixed versions.

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
NetatalkApplication
Affected:>= 2.0.0, < 2.4.1>= 3.0, < 3.1.19= 3.2.0

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.4.1 / 3.1.19 or later
Fixed in 2.4.13.1.19
Recommended fix High confidence

Netatalk 2.4.1 (for 2.x branch), 3.1.19 (for 3.0-3.1.x branch), or 3.2.1 (for 3.2.x branch)

  1. Identify the currently installed Netatalk version using package manager (e.g., `dpkg -l | grep netatalk`, `rpm -qa | grep netatalk`, or `netatalk -V`)
  2. Stop the Netatalk service (e.g., `systemctl stop afpd` or `service afpd stop`)
  3. Upgrade Netatalk to the fixed version appropriate for your branch: For 2.x branch, upgrade to >= 2.4.1; For 3.0.x - 3.1.x branch, upgrade to >= 3.1.19; For 3.2.0, upgrade to >= 3.2.1
  4. Verify the upgraded version matches a fixed release using `netatalk -V`
  5. Restart the Netatalk service (e.g., `systemctl start afpd` or `service afpd start`)
Caveat Review release notes for your target version as configuration syntax or dependencies may have changed between major/minor releases

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

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-38440 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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