A denial-of-service issue was discovered in the MQTT library in Arm Mbed OS 2017-11-02. The function readMQTTLenString() is called by the function MQTTDeserialize_publish() to get the length and content of the MQTT topic name. In the function readMQTTLenString(), mqttstring->lenstring.len is a part of user input, which can be manipulated. An attacker can simply change it to a larger value to invalidate the if statement so that the statements inside the if statement are skipped, letting the value of mqttstring->lenstring.data default to zero. Later, curn is accessed, which points to mqttstring->lenstring.data. On an Arm Cortex-M chip, the value at address 0x0 is actually the initialization value for the MSP register. It is highly dependent on the actual firmware. Therefore, the behavior of the program is unpredictable from this time on.
This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from arm, from arm organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
First disclosed in 2019, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.
2019-11-04T20:15:10.027
2024-11-21T04:31:51.857
Modified
CVSSv3.1: 7.5 (HIGH)
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
10.0
2.9
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version/Range | Vulnerable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application | arm | mbed-mqtt | 2017-11-02 | Yes |
| Operating System | arm | mbed-os | - | Yes |
SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For arm's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.