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GHSA-hf79-8hjp-rrvq

HighCVSS 8.5 / 10
Published Nov 30, 2021·Last modified Mar 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Impact

There is a bug in the main branch of Lucet's lucet-runtime that allows a use-after-free in an Instance object that could result in memory corruption, data race, or other related issues. This bug was introduced early in the development of Lucet and is present in all releases. As a result of this bug, and dependent on the memory backing for the Instance objects, it is possible to trigger a use-after-free when the Instance is dropped.

Patches

Users should upgrade to the main branch of the Lucet repository. Lucet does not provide versioned releases on crates.io.

Workarounds

There is no way to remediate this vulnerability without upgrading.

Description

Lucet uses a "pool" allocator for new WebAssembly instances that are created. This pool allocator manages everything from the linear memory of the wasm instance, the runtime stack for async switching, as well as the memory behind the Instance itself. Instances are referred to via an InstanceHandle type which will, on drop, release the memory backing the Instance back to the pool.

When an Instance is dropped, the fields of the Instance are destructed top-to-bottom, however when the alloc: Alloc field is destructed, the memory backing the Instance is released back to the pool before the destructors of the remaining fields are run. If another thread allocates the same memory from the pool while these destructors are still running, a race condition occurs that can lead to use-after-free errors.

The bug was corrected by changing how the InstanceHandle destructor operates to ensure that the memory backing an Instance is only returned to the pool once the Instance has been completely destroyed.

This security advisory has been assigned CVE-2021-43790.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Risk Scores
Base Score
8.5

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 needs basic access or low-level privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability can affect other systems as well, not just the initial system. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
7.8

Exploitation activity has been observed. Apply available patches or mitigations urgently.

EPSS
1.57%

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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