MongoDB Vulnerability Exposes Uninitialized Memory to Unauthenticated Attackers

Bassyonni

ago 2 hours

MongoDB Vulnerability Exposes Uninitialized Memory to Unauthenticated Attackers

A critical security vulnerability has been identified in MongoDB, potentially exposing uninitialized memory to unauthenticated attackers. This issue is tracked as CVE-2025-14847 and carries a CVSS score of 8.7, indicating high severity. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of length parameter inconsistencies, allowing unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Details of MongoDB Vulnerability

The flaw specifically affects several versions of MongoDB. As described on CVE.org, mismatched length fields in Zlib compressed protocol headers could enable unauthorized clients to read uninitialized heap memory.

Affected MongoDB Versions

MongoDB 8.2.0 through 8.2.3
MongoDB 8.0.0 through 8.0.16
MongoDB 7.0.0 through 7.0.26
MongoDB 6.0.0 through 6.0.26
MongoDB 5.0.0 through 5.0.31
MongoDB 4.4.0 through 4.4.29
All MongoDB Server v4.2 versions
All MongoDB Server v4.0 versions
All MongoDB Server v3.6 versions

Resolution and Recommendations

MongoDB has provided updates to rectify this vulnerability, with fixed versions being:

MongoDB 8.2.3
MongoDB 8.0.17
MongoDB 7.0.28
MongoDB 6.0.27
MongoDB 5.0.32
MongoDB 4.4.30

In light of this vulnerability, MongoDB strongly recommends that users upgrade to one of the fixed versions without delay.

Alternative Mitigation Strategies

If an immediate upgrade is not feasible, users can mitigate risk by disabling Zlib compression. This can be achieved by starting the mongod or mongos with a configuration option that explicitly excludes Zlib, using supported alternatives like Snappy or Zstd.

Potential Implications

The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to trigger conditions that may lead to the MongoDB server returning sensitive information from its heap. This includes internal data pointers and other critical information that could facilitate further exploitation.

Organizations using affected MongoDB versions should act swiftly to remedy this security flaw and protect their data integrity.