Apache HTTP Server: HTTP/2 stream memory not reclaimed right away on RST
- Published
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- 1 proof of concept on GitHub
- Exploitation: none
- Automatable: no
- Technical impact: partial
Summary
When a HTTP/2 stream was reset (RST frame) by a client, there was a time window were the request's memory resources were not reclaimed immediately. Instead, de-allocation was deferred to connection close. A client could send new requests and resets, keeping the connection busy and open and causing the memory footprint to keep on growing. On connection close, all resources were reclaimed, but the process might run out of memory before that. This was found by the reporter during testing of CVE-2023-44487 (HTTP/2 Rapid Reset Exploit) with their own test client. During "normal" HTTP/2 use, the probability to hit this bug is very low. The kept memory would not become noticeable before the connection closes or times out. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 2.4.58, which fixes the issue.
Timeline
- CVE published
- CISA SSVC assessment
Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
- Record last updated
Affected versions
- Apache Software Foundation Apache HTTP Server
From 2.4.17 · through 2.4.57