OSEC-2018-01

    Dashboard / Vulnerabilities / OSEC-2018-01

    OSEC-2018-01

    Published: 6 Apr 2018Last Modified: 17 Feb 2026
    Aliases:

    Summary: An integer overflow in the `bigarray` serialization module leads to arbitrary code execution

    Details: ## Bug description The bigarray module in all recent ocaml versions is capable of reading in serialized (marshalled) objects from a external source which is often used for network operations and interprocess communication. byterun/bigarray.c Line 458 in ea60609 ```C b->data = malloc(elt_size * num_elts); ``` A integer overflow vulnerability allows under certain circumstances an remote attacker to input a corrupt object and edit arbitrary addresses in the processes memory which leads over common techniques (in this take libc one gadget but any rop gadget or got table vector would work) to arbitrary memory access (!) and in the course also arbitrary code execution Please check the writeup.pdf for more details !! In variations of this the exploit is usable in all ocaml versions we tested no matter if compiled to binary or intepreted (!) ## Steps to reproduce Check out the attached archive and run the makefile (or use the precompile executable) the exploit can be run by executing exploit.py (python2.7 and pwntools are required) The last step of code execution is using a one-gadget attack technique and is specific to the glibc version in use (e.g. tested is debian glibc 2.24-11+deb9u1) but can with minimal amount of work be ported to any libc version on any patch level to our knowledge Of course you can also use the exploit.py to write your own version of exploit ## Additional information This Vulnerability in ocaml was discovered by me ([email protected]) and the exploit collaboratly developed with ([email protected]) For illustration purposes it was packaged as security challenge to demonstrate the impact of the issue (see writeup.pdf)

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: ocaml

    Purl: pkg:opam/ocaml

    Affected ranges

    Type: ECOSYSTEM

    Events:

    Introduced- 0
    Fixed -4.07.0

    Affected versions

    3.07

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High