GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io
GHSA-jj7c-x25r-r8r3 Brillig: Heap corruption in foreign call results with nested tuple arrays
CRITICAL
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-41197
- Ecosystem
- crates.io
- Packages
- brillig
- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-131
- Reviewed
- 2026-04-21
Affected packages
• crates.io brillig: < 1.0.0-beta.19 → fixed in 1.0.0-beta.19
Description
Description
Noir programs can invoke external functions through foreign calls. When compiling to Brillig bytecode, the SSA instructions are processed block-by-block in `BrilligBlock::compile_block()`. When the compiler encounters an `Instruction::Call` with a `Value::ForeignFunction` target, it invokes `codegen_call()` in `brillig_call/code_gen_call.rs`, which dispatches to `convert_ssa_foreign_call()`.
Before emitting the foreign call opcode, the compiler must pre-allocate memory for any array results the call will return. This happens through `allocate_external_call_results()`, which iterates over the result types. For `Type::Array` results, it delegates to `allocate_foreign_call_result_array()` to recursively allocate memory on the heap for nested arrays.
The `BrilligArray` struct is the internal representation of a Noir array in Brillig IR. Its `size` field represents the semi-flattened size, the total number of memory slots the array occupies, accounting for the fact that composite types like tuples consume multiple slots per element. This size is computed by `compute_array_length()` in `brillig_block_variables.rs`:
```rust
pub(crate) fn compute_array_length(item_typ: &CompositeType, elem_count: usize) -> usize {
item_typ.len() * elem_count
}
```
For the outer array, `allocate_external_call_results()` correctly uses `define_variable()`, which internally calls `allocate_value_with_type()`. This function applies the formula above, producing the correct semi-flattened size.
However, for nested arrays, `allocate_foreign_call_result_array()` contains a bug. When it encounters a nested `Type::Array(types, nested_size)`, it calls:
```rust
Type::Array(_, nested_size) => {
let inner_array = self.brillig_context.allocate_brillig_array(*nested_size as usize);
// ....
}
```
The pattern `Type::Array(_, nested_size)` discards the inner types with `_` and uses only `nested_size`, the semantic length of the nested array (the number of logical elements), not the semi-flattened size. For simple element types this works correctly, but for composite element types it under-allocates. Consider a nested array of type `[(u32, u32); 3]`:
• Semantic length: 3 (three tuples)
• Element size: 2 (each tuple has two fields)
• Required semi-flattened size: 6 memory slots
The current code passes `3` to `allocate_brillig_array()`, which then calls `codegen_initialize_array()`. This function allocates `array.size + ARRAY_META_COUNT` slots, only 4 slots instead of the required 7 (6 data + 1 metadata). When the VM executes the foreign call and writes 6 values plus metadata, it overwrites adjacent heap memory.
Impact
Foreign calls returning nested arrays of tuples or other composite types corrupt the Brillig VM heap.
Recommendation
Multiply the semantic length by the number of element types when allocating nested arrays. Extract the inner types from the pattern and replace the `nested_size` argument to `allocate_brillig_array()` with `types.len() * nested_size` to compute the semi-flattened size. Alternatively, reuse the existing `compute_array_length()` helper function to maintain consistency with outer array allocation.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-41197 Noir is a Domain Specific Language for SNARK proving systems that is designed to use any ACIR compatible proving system, and Brillig is the… vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-131 Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size weakness