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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 5.3 CVE-2021-32785 EUVD-2021-19548

Format string bug in the Redis cache implementation

Published Jul 22, 2021 · Updated Aug 3, 2024 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

mod_auth_openidc is an authentication/authorization module for the Apache 2.x HTTP server that functions as an OpenID Connect Relying Party, authenticating users against an OpenID Connect Provider. When mod_auth_openidc versions prior to 2.4.9 are configured to use an unencrypted Redis cache (`OIDCCacheEncrypt off`, `OIDCSessionType server-cache`, `OIDCCacheType redis`), `mod_auth_openidc` wrongly performed argument interpolation before passing Redis requests to `hiredis`, which would perform it again and lead to an uncontrolled format string bug. Initial assessment shows that this bug does not appear to allow gaining arbitrary code execution, but can reliably provoke a denial of service by repeatedly crashing the Apache workers. This bug has been corrected in version 2.4.9 by performing argument interpolation only once, using the `hiredis` API. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by setting `OIDCCacheEncrypt` to `on`, as cache keys are cryptographically hashed before use when this option is enabled.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
zmartzone mod_auth_openidc < 2.4.9 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 libapache2-mod-auth-openidc 2.4.9-1 —
Debian 13 libapache2-mod-auth-openidc 2.4.9-1 —
Debian 12 libapache2-mod-auth-openidc 2.4.9-1 —
Debian 10 libapache2-mod-auth-openidc 2.3.10.2-1+deb10u2 DLA-3409-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS libapache2-mod-auth-openidc No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS libapache2-mod-auth-openidc No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.4.17.1-150600.16.14.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4532-1
SLES 15 SP6 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.4.17.1-150600.16.14.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4532-1
SLES 15 SP3 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.3.8-3.15.1 SUSE-SU-2021:3020-1
SLES 15 SP2 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.3.8-3.15.1 SUSE-SU-2021:3020-1
SLES 12 SP5 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.4.0-3.23.1 SUSE-SU-2021:3352-1
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 12 SP5 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.4.0-3.23.1 SUSE-SU-2021:3352-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.4.9.4-1.2 openSUSE-SU-2024:10624-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.4.17.1-150600.16.14.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4532-1
openSUSE Leap 15.3 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.3.8-3.15.1 openSUSE-SU-2021:3020-1
openSUSE Leap 15.2 apache2-mod_auth_openidc 2.3.8-lp152.5.6.1 openSUSE-SU-2021:1277-1

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) httpd 2.4.52-1 —

Advisories 7

References