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russh is missing overflow checks during channel windows adjust

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Aug 4, 2025 in Eugeny/russh • Updated Aug 5, 2025

Package

cargo russh (Rust)

Affected versions

< 0.54.1

Patched versions

0.54.1

Description

Summary

The channel window adjust message of the SSH protocol is used to track the free space in the receive buffer of the other side of a channel. The current implementation takes the value from the message and adds it to an internal state value. This can result in a integer overflow. If the Rust code is compiled with overflow checks, it will panic. A malicious client can crash a server.

Details

According https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4254#section-5.2, The value must not overflow.
The incorrect handling is done in server/encrypted.rs and client/encrypted.rs in the handling of CHANNEL_WINDOW_ADJUST.

let amount = map_err!(u32::decode(&mut r))?;
...
channel.recipient_window_size += amount;

It could be replaced with something like

  if let Some(ref mut channel) = enc.channels.get_mut(&channel_num) {
                        // rfc 4254: The window MUST NOT be increased above 2^32 - 1 bytes.
                        new_size = channel.recipient_window_size.saturating_add(amount);
                        channel.recipient_window_size = new_size;
                    }
...

PoC

A customized client code would be required to send a message with a big value like u32_max. Not done yet.

Impact

This problem seems only critical to a server. One user can crash the server, which might take down the service. A malicious server could also crash a single client, but this seems not very critical.

References

@Eugeny Eugeny published to Eugeny/russh Aug 4, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 4, 2025
Reviewed Aug 4, 2025
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Aug 5, 2025
Last updated Aug 5, 2025

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(17th percentile)

Weaknesses

Integer Overflow or Wraparound

The product performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound, when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This can introduce other weaknesses when the calculation is used for resource management or execution control. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-54804

GHSA ID

GHSA-h5rc-j5f5-3gcm

Source code

Credits

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