CVE-2021-39218

Out-of-bounds read/write and invalid free with `externref`s and GC safepoints in Wasmtime

MEDIUM
6.3
CVSS Score
Published: September 17, 2021 at 08:10 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:03 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsFedoraWasmtime

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Severity
MEDIUM6.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%

Description

Wasmtime is an open source runtime for WebAssembly & WASI. In Wasmtime from version 0.26.0 and before version 0.30.0 is affected by a memory unsoundness vulnerability. There was an invalid free and out-of-bounds read and write bug when running Wasm that uses `externref`s in Wasmtime. To trigger this bug, Wasmtime needs to be running Wasm that uses `externref`s, the host creates non-null `externrefs`, Wasmtime performs a garbage collection (GC), and there has to be a Wasm frame on the stack that is at a GC safepoint where there are no live references at this safepoint, and there is a safepoint with live references earlier in this frame's function. Under this scenario, Wasmtime would incorrectly use the GC stack map for the safepoint from earlier in the function instead of the empty safepoint. This would result in Wasmtime treating arbitrary stack slots as `externref`s that needed to be rooted for GC. At the *next* GC, it would be determined that nothing was referencing these bogus `externref`s (because nothing could ever reference them, because they are not really `externref`s) and then Wasmtime would deallocate them and run `<ExternRef as Drop>::drop` on them. This results in a free of memory that is not necessarily on the heap (and shouldn't be freed at this moment even if it was), as well as potential out-of-bounds reads and writes. Even though support for `externref`s (via the reference types proposal) is enabled by default, unless you are creating non-null `externref`s in your host code or explicitly triggering GCs, you cannot be affected by this bug. We have reason to believe that the effective impact of this bug is relatively small because usage of `externref` is currently quite rare. This bug has been patched and users should upgrade to Wasmtime version 0.30.0. If you cannot upgrade Wasmtime at this time, you can avoid this bug by disabling the reference types proposal by passing `false` to `wasmtime::Config::wasm_reference_types`.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v ≤ 0.29.00.26.0 ≤ v < 0.30.0
Affected range stops below 0.30.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

CVSS

6.3MEDIUMGitHub_M
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-125CWE-590CWE-787

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