Thursday, May 1, 2025
Homecyber securityFreeBSD RCE Vulnerability Let Attackers Execute Malicious Code

FreeBSD RCE Vulnerability Let Attackers Execute Malicious Code

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

FreeBSD has disclosed a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting its bhyve hypervisor.

This vulnerability, CVE-2024-41721, could allow attackers to execute malicious code on the host system. The advisory, which was announced on September 19, 2024, credits Synacktiv with discovering the flaw.

CVE-2024-41721 – Vulnerability Details

As per a report by FreeBSD, the vulnerability resides in the XHCI emulation of the bhyve hypervisor, which is used to run guest operating systems inside virtual machines.

- Advertisement - Google News

Specifically, the issue stems from insufficient boundary validation in the USB code, leading to an out-of-bounds read on the heap.

This flaw can be exploited by malicious software running in a guest VM to crash the hypervisor process or achieve code execution on the host system.

The bhyve process typically runs as root, increasing the potential impact of this vulnerability. 

While bhyve operates within a Capsicum sandbox, which limits the capabilities available to processes, this does not entirely mitigate the risk posed by this vulnerability.

Systems using XHCI emulation are particularly at risk, as no workaround is available for these configurations.

Decoding Compliance: What CISOs Need to Know – Join Free Webinar

Impact and Affected Versions

This vulnerability affects all supported versions of FreeBSD. Its potential impact is significant, as it allows attackers with privileged access to guest VMs to execute arbitrary code on the host system.

This could lead to unauthorized access or control over the host machine, posing a severe security threat to affected systems.

Here’s a table summarizing the impacted versions of FreeBSD and the corresponding corrections for the bhyve RCE vulnerability (CVE-2024-41721):

FreeBSD Branch/VersionCorrection Date and Time (UTC)Git Commit Hash
stable/142024-09-19 12:40:17419da61f8203
releng/14.12024-09-19 13:30:183c6c0dcb5acb
releng/14.02024-09-19 13:30:44ba46f1174972
stable/132024-09-19 12:48:522abd2ad64899
releng/13.42024-09-19 13:35:065f035df278cc
releng/13.32024-09-19 13:35:37e7a790dc3ffe

To mitigate this vulnerability, users should upgrade their FreeBSD systems to a version that includes the patch released on September 19, 2024.

The FreeBSD Project provides two methods for updating affected systems:

  1. Binary Patch Update: Systems running a RELEASE version of FreeBSD can be updated using the FreeBSD-update utility. This involves fetching and installing the latest updates via command-line instructions.
  2. Source Code Patch Update: Users can download and verify patches from FreeBSD’s security website and apply them manually using command-line tools. This method requires recompiling the operating system using build world and install world procedures.

After applying updates or patches, it is crucial to restart any guest operating systems using USB devices with XHCI emulation to ensure that the corrections take effect.

Are You From SOC/DFIR Teams? - Try Advanced Malware and Phishing Analysis With ANY.RUN - 14-day free trial



Divya
Divya
Divya is a Senior Journalist at GBhackers covering Cyber Attacks, Threats, Breaches, Vulnerabilities and other happenings in the cyber world.

Latest articles

Netgear EX6200 Flaw Enables Remote Access and Data Theft

Security researchers have disclosed three critical vulnerabilities in the Netgear EX6200 Wi-Fi range extender...

Tesla Model 3 VCSEC Vulnerability Lets Hackers Run Arbitrary Code

A high security flaw in Tesla’s Model 3 vehicles, disclosed at the 2025 Pwn2Own...

Quantum Computing and Cybersecurity – What CISOs Need to Know Now

As quantum computing transitions from theoretical research to practical application, Chief Information Security Officers...

Apache ActiveMQ Vulnerability Lets Remote Hackers Execute Arbitrary Code

A high vulnerability in Apache ActiveMQ’s .NET Message Service (NMS) library has been uncovered,...

Resilience at Scale

Why Application Security is Non-Negotiable

The resilience of your digital infrastructure directly impacts your ability to scale. And yet, application security remains a critical weak link for most organizations.

Application Security is no longer just a defensive play—it’s the cornerstone of cyber resilience and sustainable growth. In this webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy (CTO of Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface), will share how AI-powered application security can help organizations build resilience by

Discussion points


Protecting at internet scale using AI and behavioral-based DDoS & bot mitigation.
Autonomously discovering external assets and remediating vulnerabilities within 72 hours, enabling secure, confident scaling.
Ensuring 100% application availability through platforms architected for failure resilience.
Eliminating silos with real-time correlation between attack surface and active threats for rapid, accurate mitigation

More like this

Netgear EX6200 Flaw Enables Remote Access and Data Theft

Security researchers have disclosed three critical vulnerabilities in the Netgear EX6200 Wi-Fi range extender...

Tesla Model 3 VCSEC Vulnerability Lets Hackers Run Arbitrary Code

A high security flaw in Tesla’s Model 3 vehicles, disclosed at the 2025 Pwn2Own...

Apache ActiveMQ Vulnerability Lets Remote Hackers Execute Arbitrary Code

A high vulnerability in Apache ActiveMQ’s .NET Message Service (NMS) library has been uncovered,...