Rust advisories / ic-cdk
Vulnerability HighRUSTSEC-2024-0372 · ic-cdk
RUSTSEC-2024-0372: Memory leak when calling a canister method via `ic_cdk::call`
Short answerA security vulnerability in the ic-cdk crate: Memory leak when calling a canister method via `ic_cdk::call`. High severity (CVSS 7.5). Fixed in 0.10.1, 0.11.6, 0.12.2, 0.13.5, 0.14.1, 0.15.1, 0.16.0, 0.8.2, 0.9.3: update to a fixed version.
| Crate | ic-cdk |
|---|---|
| Type | Vulnerability (denial-of-service) |
| Affected versions | From 0.8.0 before 0.8.2; from 0.9.0 before 0.9.3; from 0.10.0 before 0.10.1; from 0.11.0 before 0.11.6; from 0.12.0 before 0.12.2; from 0.13.0 before 0.13.5; from 0.14.0 before 0.14.1; from 0.15.0 before 0.15.1; from 0.16.0 before 0.16.0. |
| Fixed in | 0.10.1, 0.11.6, 0.12.2, 0.13.5, 0.14.1, 0.15.1, 0.16.0, 0.8.2, 0.9.3 |
| Severity | High, CVSS 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| Published | 2024-09-05 |
| Last changed | 2024-09-07 |
| Also known as | CVE-2024-7884, GHSA-rwq6-crjg-9cpw |
What to do
- See which version you have:
cargo tree -i ic-cdk(it also shows which of your dependencies pulls it in). - Update within your version requirement:
cargo update -p ic-cdk. If the fix is a newer major or minor than your requirement allows, raise it in Cargo.toml (for exampleic-cdk = "0.9.3") or update the dependency that pulls it in. - Check again with
cargo audit, or paste your Cargo.lock into our Cargo.toml checker.
Details from the advisory
When a canister method is called via ic_cdk::call*, a new Future CallFuture is created and can be awaited by the caller to get the execution result. Internally, the state of the Future is tracked and stored in a struct called CallFutureState. A bug in the polling implementation of the CallFuture allows multiple references to be held for this internal state and not all references were dropped before the Future is resolved. Since we have unaccounted references held, a copy of the internal state ended up being persisted in the canister's heap and thus causing a memory leak.
Impact
Canisters built in Rust with ic_cdk and ic_cdk_timers are affected. If these canisters call a canister method, use timers or heartbeat, they will likely leak a small amount of memory on every such operation. **In the worst case, this could lead to heap memory exhaustion triggered by an attacker.**
Motoko based canisters are not affected by the bug.
Patches
The patch has been backported to all minor versions between >= 0.8.0, <= 0.15.0. The patched versions available are 0.8.2, 0.9.3, 0.10.1, 0.11.6, 0.12.2, 0.13.5, 0.14.1, 0.15.1 and their previous versions have been yanked.
Workarounds
There are no known workarounds at the moment. Developers are recommended to upgrade their canister as soon as possible to the latest available patched version of ic_cdk to avoid running out of Wasm heap memory.
> Upgrading the canisters (without updating ic_cdk) also frees the leaked memory but it's only a temporary solution.
Referencesas
References
- Package: crates.io/crates/ic-cdk
- Advisory: rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2024-0372.html
- Web: github.com/dfinity/cdk-rs/pull/509
From the RustSec Advisory Database (CC0-1.0) via the OSV export, downloaded Oct 24, 2026. Severity score computed from the published CVSS vector.
Up next
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