VulnerabilityPublished 27 Feb 2024Updated 29 Aug 2024

CVE-2024-27508: Atheme 7.2.12 contains a memory leak

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 54% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Feb 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

Until an official patch is released, organizations should implement specific mitigations to reduce risk. These include: 1) Restricting network exposure of Atheme services to trusted networks or VPNs to limit remote attack surface. 2) Monitoring system memory usage and process health to detect abnormal resource consumption indicative of exploitation attempts. 3) Employing resource limits (e.g., cgroups or container memory limits) to prevent a single process from exhausting host memory. 4) Keeping Atheme installations isolated from critical infrastructure to minimize impact. 5) Regularly checking vendor advisories and community channels for patch releases or workarounds. 6) Considering temporary service suspension or replacement if risk is unacceptable and patching is delayed. 7) Conducting internal code reviews or audits of the crypto-benchmark module if feasible to identify potential fixes or mitigations. These targeted actions go beyond generic advice by focusing on containment, detection, and operational controls specific to memory leak exploitation.

Description

Atheme 7.2.12 contains a memory leak vulnerability in /atheme/src/crypto-benchmark/main.c.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-27508 is on system availability. Exploiting the memory leak can cause denial-of-service conditions by exhausting memory resources, potentially crashing the Atheme service or the host system. This can disrupt IRC services or other dependent applications, leading to operational downtime and service unavailability. Although confidentiality and integrity are not directly affected, the denial-of-service may indirectly impact business continuity, customer trust, and operational workflows. Organizations relying on Atheme 7.2.12 in critical communication infrastructures may face significant disruption. The lack of required privileges or user interaction lowers the barrier for attackers to exploit this vulnerability remotely, increasing the risk profile. The absence of known exploits in the wild currently reduces immediate threat but does not eliminate future risk as attackers may develop exploits once patches are released or if the vulnerability is reverse-engineered.

CWE-401Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (opens in a new tab)
Variant weaknessLikelihood of exploit: Medium
The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse.
Implementation · Libraries or Frameworks
Choose a language or tool that provides automatic memory management, or makes manual memory management less error-prone.
Architecture and Design
Use an abstraction library to abstract away risky APIs. Not a complete solution.
Architecture and Design · Build and Compilation
Consider using the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector (bdwgc), which can help avoid leaks.
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

github.com/LuMingYinDetect/Atheme_defects/blob/main/Atheme_detect_1.md (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Feb 2026, 11:04 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-401

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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