CVE-2019-17185: freeradius Improper Synchronization

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2019-17185 is a high (CVSS 7.5) Improper Synchronization vulnerability in freeradius. EPSS estimates a 2.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 82.4% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 21-03-2020
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2024
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In FreeRADIUS 3.0.x before 3.0.20, the EAP-pwd module used a global OpenSSL BN_CTX instance to handle all handshakes. This mean multiple threads use the same BN_CTX instance concurrently, resulting in crashes when concurrent EAP-pwd handshakes are initiated. This can be abused by an adversary as a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack.

• CWE-662Improper SynchronizationThe product utilizes multiple threads, processes, components, or systems to allow temporary access to a shared resource that can only be exclusive to one process at a time, but it does not properly synchronize these actions, which might cause simultaneous accesses of this resource by multiple threads or processes.