Executive brief
A vulnerability exists in the U-Boot bootloader, which is widely used in embedded systems and networking hardware to start the operating system. An attacker could exploit this flaw to take complete control of the device during the boot process. This could lead to permanent device compromise, data theft, or a total loss of service for critical infrastructure.
Technical details
A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in Das U-Boot through version 2019.07 within the NFS (Network File System) implementation. Specifically, the issue resides in the nfs_readlink_reply helper function of the nfs_handler. A remote attacker on the same network can exploit this by sending a specially crafted NFS reply packet during a network boot process. Because U-Boot often runs with high privileges and lacks modern memory protections (like ASLR or stack canaries) in its early boot environment, this can lead to reliable remote code execution. Siemens has also identified this as affecting Ruggedcom Rox II devices, recommending an update to V2.17.1 or later.
Affected products
- Das U-Boot U-Boot through 2019.07
- Siemens Corproation Ruggedcom Rox II family before V2.17.1
Timeline
- 2019-07-31: disclosed
- 2019-07-31: advisory
- 2026-05-12: other: Siemens published downstream advisory SSA-577017