CVE-2024-10838: Eclipse Cyclone DDS Disclosure Flaw

CVE-2024-10838 Overview

CVE-2024-10838 is an integer underflow vulnerability affecting Eclipse Cyclone Data Distribution Service (DDS). The flaw exists in the deserialization process, where an integer underflow condition allows any unauthenticated user to read out-of-bounds heap memory. This memory disclosure vulnerability can expose sensitive data, including secret information or pointers that reveal the layout of the address space. Exploitation may result in deserialized data structures containing leaked information, potentially leading to thread crashes or denial of service conditions.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this integer underflow to read out-of-bounds heap memory over the network, potentially exposing sensitive data, memory layout information, and causing denial of service conditions.

Affected Products

• Eclipse Cyclone Data Distribution Service (all versions prior to 0.10.5)
• Applications built on Eclipse Cyclone DDS middleware
• IoT and real-time systems utilizing Cyclone DDS for data distribution

Discovery Timeline

• March 12, 2025 - CVE-2024-10838 published to NVD
• July 31, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-10838

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-191 (Integer Underflow), which occurs when an arithmetic operation results in a value smaller than the minimum representable value for the data type. In the context of Eclipse Cyclone DDS, the integer underflow manifests during the deserialization of incoming network data.

When processing serialized data structures, the deserialization routine performs size calculations that can underflow when specific malformed input is provided. This underflow causes the routine to read beyond the allocated heap buffer boundaries, exposing arbitrary heap memory contents to the attacker. The network-accessible nature of this vulnerability is particularly concerning, as it requires no authentication to exploit.

The leaked memory may contain sensitive information such as cryptographic keys, authentication tokens, or internal pointers. Pointer leakage is especially dangerous as it can defeat Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), potentially enabling more sophisticated follow-up attacks.

Root Cause

The root cause is an integer underflow condition in the deserialization logic of Eclipse Cyclone DDS. When calculating buffer sizes or offsets during deserialization, the code fails to properly validate input values before performing subtraction operations. This allows an attacker to craft malicious input that causes a size variable to wrap around to a very large positive value, resulting in an out-of-bounds heap read.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, requiring no prior authentication or user interaction. An attacker can send specially crafted DDS messages to a vulnerable Cyclone DDS implementation. The malicious payload triggers the integer underflow during deserialization, causing the application to read heap memory beyond its intended boundaries.

The attack flow involves:

1. Attacker identifies a target system running vulnerable Eclipse Cyclone DDS
2. Attacker crafts a malicious DDS message with values designed to trigger integer underflow
3. The deserialization routine processes the malformed data and underflows during size calculation
4. Out-of-bounds heap memory is read and potentially returned to the attacker
5. The application may crash or continue operating with corrupted state

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-10838

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected crashes or segmentation faults in Cyclone DDS processes during message processing
• Anomalous DDS network traffic containing malformed serialization headers or unusual size values
• Memory access violations logged by system monitoring tools
• Unusual memory consumption patterns in DDS-enabled applications
• Application instability correlated with receipt of external DDS messages

Detection Strategies

• Deploy network intrusion detection systems (IDS) to monitor for malformed DDS protocol messages with suspicious size fields
• Implement application-level monitoring to detect abnormal deserialization behavior or memory access patterns
• Enable heap canary protection and memory sanitizers in development and testing environments to catch out-of-bounds reads
• Monitor for process crashes with signatures consistent with memory corruption in DDS components

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure logging to capture detailed information about incoming DDS messages, including source addresses and message metadata
• Implement runtime memory monitoring using tools like AddressSanitizer (ASan) in non-production environments
• Set up alerting for repeated crashes or restarts of Cyclone DDS processes
• Review network traffic logs for connections from untrusted sources to DDS endpoints

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-10838

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade Eclipse Cyclone DDS to version 0.10.5 or later immediately
• Implement network segmentation to restrict access to DDS endpoints from untrusted networks
• Apply firewall rules to limit DDS traffic to authorized systems only
• Review and audit all deployments using Cyclone DDS for exposure to untrusted network traffic
• Enable available memory protection mechanisms (ASLR, DEP) on systems running Cyclone DDS

Patch Information

Eclipse has released version 0.10.5 of Cyclone DDS which addresses this vulnerability. The patch includes proper bounds checking and input validation in the deserialization routines to prevent the integer underflow condition. Organizations should upgrade to this version as soon as possible.

For detailed patch information, refer to the GitHub Release 0.10.5 and the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-6jj6-w25p-jc42.

Workarounds

• Isolate Cyclone DDS deployments behind firewalls that restrict network access to trusted sources only
• Implement application-layer input validation before passing data to Cyclone DDS deserialization functions where architecturally feasible
• Deploy intrusion prevention systems (IPS) with custom rules to detect and block malformed DDS messages
• Consider running DDS processes in sandboxed environments with restricted memory access permissions

# Example firewall configuration to restrict DDS access
# Allow DDS traffic only from trusted internal networks
iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 7400:7500 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 7400:7500 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 7400:7500 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 7400:7500 -j DROP