GHSA-77h3-w9rx-hj3q — scratchpad
GHSA-77h3-w9rx-hj3q is a remote code execution vulnerability in scratchpad. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
User-defined implementations of the safe trait scratchpad::Tracking can cause heap buffer overflows
Real-World Exposure
scratchpadReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The get and set methods of the public trait scratchpad::Tracking interact with unsafe code regions in the crate, and they influence the computation of addresses returned as raw pointers. However, the trait itself is not marked as unsafe, meaning users may provide custom implementations under the assumption that the crate upholds all safety guarantees.
This becomes problematic because even safe implementations of get and set-written without using any unsafe code-can still result in ill-formed raw pointers. These pointers may later be dereferenced within safe APIs of the crate (e.g., marker::MarkerBack::allocate_slice_copy), potentially leading to arbitrary memory access or heap buffer overflows.
According to the penultimate commit, the crate is in maintenance mode awaiting a cleanup that will reduce the area of unsafe code. Note that the last commits to the repository are from 4 years ago.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | scratchpad | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for scratchpad, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of scratchpad has shipped for GHSA-77h3-w9rx-hj3q yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-77h3-w9rx-hj3q can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-77h3-w9rx-hj3q. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-77h3-w9rx-hj3q in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-77h3-w9rx-hj3q across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.