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GHSA-4hwq-4cpm-8vmx

LowCVSS 3.7 / 10
Published Feb 26, 2024·Last modified Feb 4, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Summary

When using the built-in extract32(b, start), if the start index provided has for side effect to update b, the byte array to extract 32 bytes from, it could be that some dirty memory is read and returned by extract32.

As of v0.4.0 (specifically, commit https://github.com/vyperlang/vyper/commit/3d9c537142fb99b2672f21e2057f5f202cde194f), the compiler will panic instead of generating bytecode.

Details

Before evaluating start, the function Extract32.build_IR caches only:

  • The pointer in memory/storage to b: https://github.com/vyperlang/vyper/blob/10564dcc37756f3d3684b7a91fd8f4325a38c4d8/vyper/builtins/functions.py#L916-L918
  • The length of b: https://github.com/vyperlang/vyper/blob/10564dcc37756f3d3684b7a91fd8f4325a38c4d8/vyper/builtins/functions.py#L920-L922

but do not cache the actual content of b. This means that if the evaluation of start changes b's content and length, an outdated length will be used with the new content when extracting 32 bytes from b.

PoC

Calling the function foo of the following contract returns b'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu\x00\x00789' meaning that extract32 accessed some dirty memory.

var:Bytes[96]

@internal
def bar() -> uint256:
    self.var = b'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu'
    self.var = b''
    return 3

@external
def foo() -> bytes32:
    self.var = b'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456789'
    return extract32(self.var, self.bar(), output_type=bytes32)
    # returns b'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu\x00\x00789'

Impact

For contracts that are affected, it means that calling extract32 returns dirty memory bytes instead of some expected output.

Risk Scores
Base Score
3.7

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is difficult for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability and may require special conditions. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a low impact on the confidentiality of the information.

Threat Intelligence
3.4

Limited exploitation activity has been observed. Close monitoring and planned remediation are recommended.

EPSS
0.56%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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