CVE-2021-34423

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2021-34423 is categorized as a critical Classic Buffer Overflow flaw with a CVSS base score of 9.8. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

A buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in Zoom Client for Meetings (for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows) before version 5.8.4, Zoom Client for Meetings for Blackberry (for Android and iOS) before version 5.8.1, Zoom Client for Meetings for intune (for Android and iOS) before version 5.8.4, Zoom Client for Meetings for Chrome OS before version 5.0.1, Zoom Rooms for Conference Room (for Android, AndroidBali, macOS, and Windows) before version 5.8.3, Controllers for Zoom Rooms (for Android, iOS, and Windows) before version 5.8.3, Zoom VDI Windows Meeting Client before version 5.8.4, Zoom VDI Azure Virtual Desktop Plugins (for Windows x86 or x64, IGEL x64, Ubuntu x64, HP ThinPro OS x64) before version 5.8.4.21112, Zoom VDI Citrix Plugins (for Windows x86 or x64, Mac Universal Installer & Uninstaller, IGEL x64, eLux RP6 x64, HP ThinPro OS x64, Ubuntu x64, CentOS x 64, Dell ThinOS) before version 5.8.4.21112, Zoom VDI VMware Plugins (for Windows x86 or x64, Mac Universal Installer & Uninstaller, IGEL x64, eLux RP6 x64, HP ThinPro OS x64, Ubuntu x64, CentOS x 64, Dell ThinOS) before version 5.8.4.21112, Zoom Meeting SDK for Android before version 5.7.6.1922, Zoom Meeting SDK for iOS before version 5.7.6.1082, Zoom Meeting SDK for macOS before version 5.7.6.1340, Zoom Meeting SDK for Windows before version 5.7.6.1081, Zoom Video SDK (for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows) before version 1.1.2, Zoom On-Premise Meeting Connector Controller before version 4.8.12.20211115, Zoom On-Premise Meeting Connector MMR before version 4.8.12.20211115, Zoom On-Premise Recording Connector before version 5.1.0.65.20211116, Zoom On-Premise Virtual Room Connector before version 4.4.7266.20211117, Zoom On-Premise Virtual Room Connector Load Balancer before version 2.5.5692.20211117, Zoom Hybrid Zproxy before version 1.0.1058.20211116, and Zoom Hybrid MMR before version 4.6.20211116.131_x86-64. This can potentially allow a malicious actor to crash the service or application, or leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Remote Code Execution: Attackers can overwrite the instruction pointer to redirect execution to malicious shellcode.

✅ Memory Corruption: Overwriting adjacent memory regions can corrupt critical application state, leading to privilege escalation.

✅ Denial of Service: Triggering segmentation faults results in immediate disruption of critical systems.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2021-34423

1. Apply Vendor Patches: Upgrade affected components to their latest, non-vulnerable versions immediately.
2. Implement Input Validation: Ensure all user-supplied data is validated, sanitized, and type-checked before processing.
3. Deploy Runtime Protection: Use Precogs continuous monitoring to detect exploitation attempts in real time.
4. Audit Dependencies: Review and update all third-party libraries and transitive dependencies.

Defending with Precogs AI

Precogs Binary SAST/DAST engine performs deep structural analysis of compiled binaries, detecting memory corruption, control-flow hijacking, and privilege escalation vulnerabilities without requiring source code access.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Classic Buffer Overflow
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Taint sink: copies without bounds checking
    strcpy(buffer, input);
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Bounded copy
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Sanitized boundary check
    strncpy(buffer, input, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
    buffer[sizeof(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs Binary SAST engine explicitly uncovers memory boundary violations and unsafe memory management functions in compiled binaries.