MbedOperating system · Arm

CVE-2024-48986

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-11-20
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
An issue was discovered in MBed OS 6.16.0. Its hci parsing software dynamically determines the length of certain hci packets by reading a byte from its header. Certain events cause a callback, the logic for which allocates a buffer (the length of which is determined by looking up the event type in a table). The subsequent write operation, however, copies the amount of data specified in the packet header, which may lead to a buffer overflow. This bug is trivial to exploit for a denial of service but is not certain to suffice to bring the system down and can generally not be exploited further because the exploitable buffer is dynamically allocated.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-120

A fixed-size buffer is filled without checking the length of the incoming data, so it overflows into neighbouring memory. This is the classic overflow attackers use to overwrite return addresses and hijack execution. The fix is strict length checks and safe, bounded string and memory functions.

General guidance for the classic buffer overflow class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
MbedOperating system
Affected:= 6.16.0

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

mbed-ce/mbed-os version newer than 6.16.0 that includes PR #385 fix

  1. Check the GitHub pull request #385 at https://github.com/mbed-ce/mbed-os/pull/385 to understand the exact code changes made for the fix
  2. Identify the latest stable release of mbed-ce/mbed-os that incorporates the fix from PR #385
  3. Upgrade the Mbed OS version in your project to the fixed release that includes the patch
  4. Rebuild and test the firmware to ensure the buffer overflow is resolved
  5. Verify that HCI packet parsing now correctly validates packet length against allocated buffer size before copying data
Caveat When upgrading Mbed OS versions, review the release notes for any API changes or breaking changes in drivers and libraries that may affect your application

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

We can apply and verify the patch for your build — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the patch applied

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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-2024-48986 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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