CVE-2024-55626

What it actually does

A buffer overflow occurs in Suricata during initialization when processing an excessively large BPF filter file provided at startup.

Why it matters to the business

Successful exploitation can crash the network monitoring engine or enable arbitrary code execution, interrupting intrusion detection, prevention, and security monitoring operations across affected deployments.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker prepares an oversized BPF filter file and configures it for use when launching Suricata; upon process startup the oversized input triggers the overflow before size validation occurs.

How to fix it

Upgrade oisf/suricata to version 7.0.8 or apply the fix from commit 97e69ffb1bc2b7358115ee59f460a924893664e8 in all installations.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the installed Suricata binary reports version 7.0.8 or later; attempt startup with an oversized BPF filter file and verify the process initializes without crashing or memory corruption.

Typical attack path

1. Create a maliciously large BPF filter file
2. Place the file in a location accessible to the Suricata configuration
3. Start the Suricata process with the malicious filter referenced
4. Trigger buffer overflow during initialization

How to detect it

Review Suricata startup logs and system crash reports for failures or segmentation faults occurring while loading BPF filter files; correlate with process termination events around service initialization.

• segfault during BPF filter load
• buffer overflow at startup
• Suricata process crash on initialization with large BPF

What your security team should do

• Immediately upgrade all Suricata instances to the fixed version
• Audit existing BPF filter files for excessive size before restart
• Implement startup monitoring and alerting for Suricata process failures