---
license: mit
---

# SD-CPP-001: stable-diffusion.cpp GGUFReader Process Crash PoC

**Security Research — Responsible Disclosure**

## Vulnerability

Three input validation failures in `src/gguf_reader.hpp` (GGUFReader class) of [stable-diffusion.cpp](https://github.com/leejet/stable-diffusion.cpp) allow an attacker to crash any process loading a malformed GGUF file.

| Bug | Line | Root Cause | Impact |
|-----|------|-----------|--------|
| 1 | 62 | `std::string key(key_len, '\0')` with no bound check | `std::length_error` uncaught -> `std::terminate()` |
| 2 | 140 | `info.name.resize(name_len)` with no bound check | `std::bad_alloc` not caught by `catch(runtime_error)` |
| 3 | 155 | `shape[3] *= shape[4]` signed int64 multiply | Undefined behavior (signed overflow) |

**Commit**: d6dd6d7b555c233bb9bc9f20b4751eb8c9269743

## Reproduction

```bash
python3 poc_sd_cpp_gguf_reader.py
# Generates 3 PoC files (32-92 bytes each)

# Build stable-diffusion.cpp from source
git clone https://github.com/leejet/stable-diffusion.cpp
cd stable-diffusion.cpp && mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && cmake --build . --config Debug

# Trigger crash
./bin/sd --model /path/to/poc_metadata_oob.gguf -p "test" -o /dev/null
# Expected: "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::length_error'"
```

## Trigger Condition

GGUFReader is a fallback parser invoked when `gguf_init_from_file()` fails (model.cpp:419). A GGUF file with version=999 triggers this fallback reliably. The fallback parser performs zero validation on length fields read from the file.

## Suggested Fix

Add upper-bound validation before string allocations and widen the catch block:

```cpp
// Line 62: bound key_len
if (key_len > 65536) { LOG_ERROR("key_len too large"); return false; }

// Line 214: catch all exceptions, not just runtime_error
} catch (const std::exception& e) {
```

## Reporter

Viridis Security (Justin Hart) — viridisnorthllc@gmail.com