Facebook Messenger suffered from an application crash denial of service vulnerability when sent a single hyphen.
f9c39e248cc5f36277b1a247ed2200abFacebook Messenger Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability Report by Social Engineering Neo.
Affected Platforms: -
Android ≤9
IOS ≤11
Messenger
Messenger Lite
Tested On: -
Android 6 & 7
IOS 11
Messenger (build 228.1.0.10.116)
Messenger Lite (build 65.0.1.18.236)
Class: -
Denial of Service.
Summary: -
All versions of Messenger Lite and Multiple Versions of Messenger are susceptible to a Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability.
Short Description: -
A user can remotely crash a user’s Messenger application by sending a message containing a single character.
Long Description: -
'ATTACKER' sends a single soft hyphen to 'VICTIM'
Upon opening the message, the Messenger application on 'VICTIM' device crashes when loading the single character.
Proof of Concept: -
####
Tested on Latest Version of Messenger Lite on Android 6
'ATTACKER' send single soft hyphen to 'VICTIM'
'VICTIM' open message sent by 'ATTACKER'
####
VIDEO: - https://youtu.be/En1npDpgv_o
Expected Result: -
It shouldn't be possible to remotely crash the application on a remote user’s device.
Observed Result: -
Application remotely crashes upon loading message.
Our Recommendation:
Change the way soft hyphens are loaded in the application.
CVSS v3 Vector: -
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:R/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:N/MAC:L/MPR:N/MUI:N/MS:U/MC:N/MI:L/MA:H
CVSS Base Score: - 8.2
Impact Subscore: - 4.2
Exploitability Subscore: - 3.9
CVSS Temporal Score: - 7.3
CVSS Environmental Score: - 7.3
Modified Impact Subscore: - 4.2
Overall CVSS Score: - 7.3
CVSS v2 Vector: -
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:C/E:F/RL:OF/RC:UR/CDP:LM/TD:M/CR:ND/IR:ND/AR:ND
CVSS Base Score: - 8.5
Impact Subscore: - 7.8
Exploitability Subscore: - 10.0
CVSS Temporal Score: - 6.7
CVSS Environmental Score: - 5.7
Modified Impact Subscore: - 7.8
Overall CVSS Score: - 5.7
TIMELINE: - Discovery 2017
: - Initial Report 23rd August 2019
: - Case Opened 23rd August 2019
: - Added Detail 24th August 2019 *Public Disclosure Date: - Sep 18th 2019 UTC -08:00 (25 days from initial report)*
: - Added Detail 27th August 2019
: - Response 27th August 2019
: - Added Detail 27th August 2019
: - Response 29th August 2019
: - Added Detail 29th August 2019
: - Response 1st September 2019
: - Added Detail 1st September 2019
: - Case Closed 5th September 2019 *PATCH RELEASED PUBLICLY*
: - Added Detail 5th September 2019 *Public Disclosure Date: - Jul 6th 2019 UTC -08:00 (24 hours from patch)*
: - We thank the Facebook Security team for their quick patch.