Memory References Issues

Category: Context Manipulation
Severity: Medium
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping: T1055 (Process Injection)

Description

Insecure handling of memory references in context processing, enabling attackers to exploit memory management vulnerabilities to access or manipulate context data.

Technical Details

Attack Vector

  • Memory reference manipulation
  • Context memory exploitation
  • Memory leak exploitation
  • Memory corruption attacks

Common Techniques

  • Memory reference tampering
  • Context memory injection
  • Memory leak exploitation
  • Buffer overflow attacks

Impact

  • Memory Corruption: Corruption of context memory
  • Data Exposure: Access to sensitive context data
  • Context Manipulation: Modification of context through memory manipulation
  • System Compromise: Potential system compromise through memory attacks

Detection Methods

Memory Monitoring

  • Monitor memory usage patterns
  • Track memory allocations
  • Detect memory anomalies
  • Analyze memory access patterns

Context Memory Analysis

  • Monitor context memory usage
  • Track context memory allocations
  • Detect memory leaks
  • Analyze memory corruption

Mitigation Strategies

Memory Protection

  • Implement memory protection mechanisms
  • Use secure memory management
  • Deploy memory monitoring
  • Monitor memory integrity

Context Memory Security

  • Secure context memory handling
  • Implement context memory validation
  • Deploy context memory monitoring
  • Monitor context memory usage

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Memory Reference Tampering

def process_context(context_ref):
    # Vulnerable memory reference handling
    context_data = dereference_memory(context_ref)
    
    # Attacker manipulates memory reference
    # context_ref points to malicious data
    
    return process_data(context_data)

Example 2: Context Memory Injection

def store_context(context):
    # Vulnerable context storage
    memory_location = allocate_memory(len(context))
    write_memory(memory_location, context)
    
    # Attacker injects malicious context into memory
    # context contains memory manipulation payload
    
    return memory_location

Example 3: Memory Leak Exploitation

def get_cached_context(context_id):
    # Memory leak vulnerability
    context = cache.get(context_id)
    if not context:
        context = load_context(context_id)
        # Memory not properly freed
        cache.set(context_id, context)
    
    # Attacker exploits memory leak to access cached context
    return context

References & Sources

  • OWASP MCP Top 10 - MCP security vulnerabilities

Memory references issues represent vulnerabilities in context memory handling that can be exploited to access or manipulate context data.