CVE-2024-44083: Hex-Rays IDA Pro DOS Vulnerability

CVE-2024-44083 Overview

CVE-2024-44083 affects ida64.dll in Hex-Rays IDA Pro through version 8.4. The disassembler crashes when processing a binary section that contains many linked jumps where the final jump points to the payload invoking the actual entry point. The condition triggers a denial-of-service in the analysis engine. The NVD record notes that in many use cases this behavior is an inconvenience rather than a security issue, but the impact on availability earned the CVE a high rating. A public proof-of-concept and a generator tool named IdaMeme are available on GitHub.

Critical Impact

Crafted binaries can crash IDA Pro during analysis, disrupting reverse engineering workflows and incident response investigations.

Affected Products

• Hex-Rays IDA Pro versions through 8.4
• ida64.dll component
• Analyst workstations running affected IDA Pro builds

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-08-19 - CVE-2024-44083 published to NVD
• 2025-03-18 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-44083

Vulnerability Analysis

The flaw resides in ida64.dll, the 64-bit analysis engine of IDA Pro. When the disassembler parses a section containing a long chain of linked jumps that ultimately resolves to a payload invoking the entry point, the analysis logic fails and the process crashes. The defect is categorized under [CWE-770] (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling), indicating that recursion or resource tracking during jump-chain analysis is not properly bounded. Researcher tooling published as IdaMeme automates the generation of triggering binaries, lowering the barrier to reproducing the crash. EPSS data places this CVE in a high exploitation-likelihood percentile for nuisance-class issues, reflecting the accessibility of the PoC.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient throttling in IDA Pro's jump-chain analysis. Following many sequential linked jumps and resolving the terminal payload exhausts internal limits within ida64.dll, terminating the process before analysis completes.

Attack Vector

An attacker crafts a malicious executable containing a long chain of jumps that terminates in a payload referencing the entry point. When an analyst opens the file in IDA Pro, the disassembler crashes during automatic analysis. Delivery occurs through any channel that places a sample in front of a reverse engineer, including malware repositories, phishing attachments, or shared incident artifacts.

A public proof-of-concept and the IdaMeme generator are published at GitHub CVE-2024-44083 PoC and GitHub IdaMeme Tool. No synthetic exploitation code is reproduced here.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-44083

Indicators of Compromise

• Repeated unexpected termination of ida64.exe or ida64.dll shortly after opening a new sample
• Windows Error Reporting entries referencing ida64.dll in the faulting module field
• Samples produced by the IdaMeme tool or matching its jump-chain pattern

Detection Strategies

• Hunt for binaries containing abnormally long contiguous jump sequences terminating in entry-point trampolines
• Static-analyze inbound samples in sandboxed environments before opening them in IDA Pro
• Correlate analyst workstation crash telemetry with the file hash of the most recently opened sample

Monitoring Recommendations

• Forward Windows Application event logs and WER crash dumps from reverse-engineering workstations to a central analytics platform
• Alert on faulting module ida64.dll with exception codes consistent with stack exhaustion or access violation
• Track file provenance for samples analyzed on isolated reversing hosts

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-44083

Immediate Actions Required

• Inventory IDA Pro installations and identify any running versions at or below 8.4
• Move reverse-engineering activity to isolated virtual machines without access to sensitive data or production credentials
• Treat unknown samples as potentially anti-analysis crafted and review them in a sandbox before loading into IDA Pro

Patch Information

Hex-Rays has not published a vendor advisory referenced in the NVD record at the time of writing. Analysts should monitor Hex-Rays release notes for fixes in IDA Pro versions beyond 8.4 and apply updates as soon as they are available.

Workarounds

• Disable automatic analysis on load and step through suspect sections manually
• Use alternative disassemblers for initial triage of untrusted samples
• Snapshot the analyst virtual machine before opening unknown binaries so a crash does not lose work
• Restrict file delivery channels into reversing workstations to vetted sources