If you track cybersecurity news or manage patching at your job, you might have come across CVE-2024-26624. Maybe you even saw it in a vulnerability scan or a security bulletin. You might have asked, “Should I worry about this one?” In this post, we’ll break down CVE-2024-26624, what “rejected CVE” means, include some code snippets for context, and help you understand how these situations can happen.

What Is CVE-2024-26624?

CVE-2024-26624 was an identifier reserved for what was believed to be a software vulnerability. However, this CVE ID has now been rejected or withdrawn by the CVE Numbering Authority (CNA). That means it is not a valid or real vulnerability. Here’s what the official record says:

> CVE Record at NVD
>
> *"REJECTION: This CVE ID has been rejected or withdrawn by its CVE Numbering Authority. Further requests for this ID should reference the documentation for CVE usage."*

Why would this happen? And should you care? Read on to find out.

There are many reasons a CVE might be marked as “REJECTED.” Here are the common ones

- Mistaken assignment: The issue was initially thought to be a vulnerability, but later proven otherwise.

Researcher error: The researcher misunderstood or misreported the software’s behavior.

This keeps the CVE system tidy and stops the spread of false alarms.

CVE Reserved – Initial analysis reserves CVE-2024-26624.

3. Further Investigation – Review finds it’s either not a bug, not exploitable, or not a duplicate.

Suppose there’s a bug report about unsafe handling in a function

void log_user_input(const char* input) {
    char buf[100];
    strcpy(buf, input);  // supposed unsafe - buffer overflow?
    log(buf);
}

A security researcher thinks: “strcpy can cause buffer overflows! Aha, a vulnerability!”

But, after review, the developer shows that input length is always checked elsewhere

void get_user_input(char* input) {
    fgets(input, 99, stdin);
}

So, in reality, the user can’t overflow buf. The initial report doesn’t hold up. No real vulnerability exists. CVE-2024-26624 gets REJECTED.

What About Exploit Details?

Since the CVE is rejected, there is no valid exploit. Any proof-of-concept script would be based on a misunderstanding, like this (which doesn’t actually work):

import socket
payload = b"A" * 101  # Trying to overflow
s = socket.socket()
s.connect(("example.host", 9999))
s.send(payload)
# No crash, because the code blocks long inputs!

Do not attempt to exploit; nothing to gain.

Sometimes, vulnerability scanners may still list it. You can safely flag it as a false positive.

If you want to double-check an official source, use

- National Vulnerability Database (NVD) for CVE-2024-26624
- CVE List from MITRE
- CVE FAQ – Why do CVEs get rejected?

Final Words

It’s completely normal for some CVEs to be retracted and marked as rejected after more thorough research. CVE-2024-26624 is a great example; there’s nothing you need to do about it. The system is working as intended to prevent false alarms and keep you focused on real security threats.

Timeline

Published on: 03/06/2024 07:15:12 UTC
Last modified on: 03/27/2024 14:15:10 UTC