gmrtd ReadFile Vulnerable to Denial of Service via Excessive TLV Length Values
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Adjacent network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Passive
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- Present
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-400.
Summary
gmrtd is a Go library for reading Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs). Prior to version 0.17.2, ReadFile accepts TLVs with lengths that can range up to 4GB, which can cause unconstrained resource consumption in both memory and cpu cycles. ReadFile can consume an extended TLV with lengths well outside what would be available in ICs. It can accept something all the way up to 4GB which would take too many iterations in 256 byte chunks, and would also try to allocate memory that might not be available in constrained environments like phones. Or if an API sends data to ReadFile, the same problem applies. The very small chunked read also locks the goroutine in accepting data for a very large number of iterations. projects using the gmrtd library to read files from NFCs can experience extreme slowdowns or memory consumption. A malicious NFC can just behave like the mock transceiver described above and by just sending dummy bytes as each chunk to be read, can make the receiving thread unresponsive and fill up memory on the host system. Version 0.17.2 patches the issue.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gmrtd | gmrtd | before 0.17.2 | 0.17.2 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/gmrtd/gmrtd (Go) | before 0.17.2 | 0.17.2 | Patch available | GHSA-j49h-6577-5xwq |
- gmrtd Vendorgmrtd Affected before 0.17.2 Fixed in 0.17.2 Patch available CNA
- github.com/gmrtd/gmrtd (Go) Vendor— Affected before 0.17.2 Fixed in 0.17.2 Patch available GHSA-j49h-6577-5xwq
Remediation
- Fix · CNA gmrtd (gmrtd) Fixed in 0.17.2
- Fix · GHSA-j49h-6577-5xwq github.com/gmrtd/gmrtd (Go) Fixed in 0.17.2 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-24738
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-j49h-6577-5xwq
References
Advisory 2
Sources
- CVE-2026-24738 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-24738 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-j49h-6577-5xwq · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences