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Standard
Vulnerability Identifier

CVE-2024-4741

2024-11-13
Severity Assessment
7.5
HIGH
CVSS v3.x Score
Clinical Analysis (Description)

Issue summary: Calling the OpenSSL API function SSL_free_buffers may cause
memory to be accessed that was previously freed in some situations

Impact summary: A use after free can have a range of potential consequences such
as the corruption of valid data, crashes or execution of arbitrary code.
However, only applications that directly call the SSL_free_buffers function are
affected by this issue. Applications that do not call this function are not
vulnerable. Our investigations indicate that this function is rarely used by
applications.

The SSL_free_buffers function is used to free the internal OpenSSL buffer used
when processing an incoming record from the network. The call is only expected
to succeed if the buffer is not currently in use. However, two scenarios have
been identified where the buffer is freed even when still in use.

The first scenario occurs where a record header has been received from the
network and processed by OpenSSL, but the full record body has not yet arrived.
In this case calling SSL_free_buffers will succeed even though a record has only
been partially processed and the buffer is still in use.

The second scenario occurs where a full record containing application data has
been received and processed by OpenSSL but the application has only read part of
this data. Again a call to SSL_free_buffers will succeed even though the buffer
is still in use.

While these scenarios could occur accidentally during normal operation a
malicious attacker could attempt to engineer a stituation where this occurs.
We are not aware of this issue being actively exploited.

The FIPS modules in 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue.

Vector Sequencing

Attack Parameters

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Impact Consequences

Technical Impact

Unchanged
Scope
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness Classification

CWE-CWE-416

Timeline

Time Line

PUBLICATION
13 Nov 2024
MODIFICATION
04 Nov 2025
FIRST PATCH
01 Oct 2025
Impact Statistics

Key Metrics

CVSS Score
7.5
HIGH
Patches
3
Available
Remediation Protocol

Recommended Solution

No automatic solution found. Check vendor references.
Recommended Actions for Administrators

Immediate Action Plan

1. Inventory

Identify all affected systems in your infrastructure.

2. Assessment

Assess exposure and criticality for your organization.

3. Mitigation

Apply patches or available workarounds.

4. Verification

Test and confirm effectiveness of applied measures.