CVE-2020-8175
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in jpeg-js (npm)
What is CVE-2020-8175 About?
This Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in `jpeg-js` allows attackers to launch Denial of Service attacks. By supplying a specially crafted JPEG image, an attacker can cause the library to consume excessive resources, making the service unavailable. Exploitation is relatively straightforward if an attacker can upload or provide malicious JPEG files.
Affected Software
Technical Details
The vulnerability exists in jpeg-js versions prior to 0.4.0. It is a form of uncontrolled resource consumption. An attacker can create a JPEG image file that, when processed by jpeg-js, triggers an exceptionally high usage of resources such as CPU or memory. This could be due to malformed header information, recursive data structures, or other specific properties designed to stress the parsing or decoding components of the library beyond normal limits. The outcome is a Denial of Service, as the application becomes unresponsive or crashes due to resource depletion when attempting to process the malicious image.
What is the Impact of CVE-2020-8175?
Successful exploitation may allow attackers to degrade performance or cause the unavailability of services that process JPEG images, leading to a denial of service.
What is the Exploitability of CVE-2020-8175?
Exploitation of this Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability is of low to medium complexity. The main prerequisite is the ability for an attacker to provide a specially crafted JPEG image to an application that processes images using jpeg-js. This typically involves an upload function or any mechanism where external images are ingested. Authentication requirements depend on whether the image processing function is accessible to unauthenticated users. If an image upload is permitted to the public, no authentication is needed. Privilege requirements are generally low, as the attack surface is simply the image processing logic. This is mostly a remote exploitation scenario, targeting web servers or services handling user-uploaded content. Risk factors are significantly increased in applications that allow arbitrary image uploads without robust validation and sanitization.
What are the Known Public Exploits?
| PoC Author | Link | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| knokbak | Link | An updated version of get-pixels that patches the CVE-2020-8175 security issue. |
| knokbak | Link | An updated version of save-pixels that patches the CVE-2020-8175 security issue. |
What are the Available Fixes for CVE-2020-8175?
Available Upgrade Options
- jpeg-js
- <0.4.0 → Upgrade to 0.4.0
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What are Similar Vulnerabilities to CVE-2020-8175?
Similar Vulnerabilities: CVE-2022-24903 , CVE-2020-25679 , CVE-2019-14817 , CVE-2018-19968 , CVE-2018-1000180
