CVE-2018-5440

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2018-5440 is categorized as a critical Stack-based Buffer Overflow flaw with a CVSS base score of 9.8. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

A Stack-based Buffer Overflow issue was discovered in 3S-Smart CODESYS Web Server. Specifically: all Microsoft Windows (also WinCE) based CODESYS web servers running stand-alone Version 2.3, or as part of the CODESYS runtime system running prior to Version V1.1.9.19. A crafted request may cause a buffer overflow and could therefore execute arbitrary code on the web server or lead to a denial-of-service condition due to a crash in the web server.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Remote Code Execution: Attackers can overwrite the instruction pointer to redirect execution to malicious shellcode.

✅ Memory Corruption: Overwriting adjacent memory regions can corrupt critical application state, leading to privilege escalation.

✅ Denial of Service: Triggering segmentation faults results in immediate disruption of critical systems.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2018-5440

1. Apply Vendor Patches: Upgrade affected components to their latest, non-vulnerable versions immediately.
2. Implement Input Validation: Ensure all user-supplied data is validated, sanitized, and type-checked before processing.
3. Deploy Runtime Protection: Use Precogs continuous monitoring to detect exploitation attempts in real time.
4. Audit Dependencies: Review and update all third-party libraries and transitive dependencies.

Defending with Precogs AI

The 3S-Smart CODESYS Web Server contains a stack-based buffer overflow. Unauthenticated remote attackers send crafted HTTP requests to overflow memory buffers, leading to denial of service or remote code execution on the PLC. Precogs Binary SAST explicitly uncovers missing boundary checks in embedded web servers.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Stack-based Buffer Overflow
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Taint sink: copies without bounds checking
    strcpy(buffer, input);
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Bounded copy
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Sanitized boundary check
    strncpy(buffer, input, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
    buffer[sizeof(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs Binary SAST engine explicitly uncovers memory boundary violations and unsafe memory management functions in compiled binaries.\n