Advisory Database
  • Advisories
  • Dependency Scanning
  1. nuget
  2. ›
  3. Wasmtime
  4. ›
  5. CVE-2021-39216

CVE-2021-39216: Use After Free

September 17, 2021 (updated November 9, 2023)

Wasmtime is an open source runtime for WebAssembly & WASI. In Wasmtime from version 0.19.0 and before version 0.30.0 there was a use-after-free bug when passing externrefs from the host to guest Wasm content. To trigger the bug, you have to explicitly pass multiple externrefs from the host to a Wasm instance at the same time, either by passing multiple externrefs as arguments from host code to a Wasm function, or returning multiple externrefs to Wasm from a multi-value return function defined in the host. If you do not have host code that matches one of these shapes, then you are not impacted. If Wasmtime’s VMExternRefActivationsTable became filled to capacity after passing the first externref in, then passing in the second externref could trigger a garbage collection. However the first externref is not rooted until we pass control to Wasm, and therefore could be reclaimed by the collector if nothing else was holding a reference to it or otherwise keeping it alive. Then, when control was passed to Wasm after the garbage collection, Wasm could use the first externref, which at this point has already been freed. We have reason to believe that the effective impact of this bug is relatively small because usage of externref is currently quite rare. The bug has been fixed, and users should upgrade to Wasmtime 0.30.0. If you cannot upgrade Wasmtime yet, you can avoid the bug by disabling reference types support in Wasmtime by passing false to wasmtime::Config::wasm_reference_types.

References

  • crates.io/crates/wasmtime
  • github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/commit/101998733b74624cbd348a2366d05760b40181f3
  • github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/security/advisories/GHSA-v4cp-h94r-m7xf
  • lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WAVBRYDDUIY2ZR3K3FO4BVYJKIMJ5TP7/
  • lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/Z2Z33FTXFQ6EOINVEQIP4DFBG53G5XIY/
  • nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-39216

Code Behaviors & Features

Detect and mitigate CVE-2021-39216 with GitLab Dependency Scanning

Secure your software supply chain by verifying that all open source dependencies used in your projects contain no disclosed vulnerabilities. Learn more about Dependency Scanning →

Affected versions

All versions starting from 0.19.0 before 0.30.0

Fixed versions

  • 0.30.0

Solution

Upgrade to version 0.30.0 or above.

Impact 6.3 MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Learn more about CVSS

Weakness

  • CWE-416: Use After Free

Source file

nuget/Wasmtime/CVE-2021-39216.yml

Spotted a mistake? Edit the file on GitLab.

  • Site Repo
  • About GitLab
  • Terms
  • Privacy Statement
  • Contact

Page generated Wed, 14 May 2025 12:16:08 +0000.