A player sending a packet can cause the server to crash by providing incorrect sign data in NBT in BlockActorDataPacket.
This vulnerability was discovered using the BlockActorDataPacket, but other packets may also be affected. The player would seem to just need to send an NBT with an incorrect type to throw this error.
[Server thread/CRITICAL]: pocketmine\nbt\UnexpectedTagTypeException: "Expected a tag of type pocketmine\nbt\tag\CompoundTag, got pocketmine\nbt\tag\ByteTag" (EXCEPTION) in "pmsrc/vendor/pocketmine/nbt/src/tag/CompoundTag" at line 107
--- Stack trace ---
#0 pmsrc/src/network/mcpe/handler/InGamePacketHandler(751): pocketmine\nbt\tag\CompoundTag->getCompoundTag(string[9] FrontText)
#1 pmsrc/vendor/pocketmine/bedrock-protocol/src/BlockActorDataPacket(50): pocketmine\network\mcpe\handler\InGamePacketHandler->handleBlockActorData(object pocketmine\network\mcpe\protocol\BlockActorDataPacket#220241)
#2 pmsrc/src/network/mcpe/NetworkSession(433): pocketmine\network\mcpe\protocol\BlockActorDataPacket->handle(object pocketmine\network\mcpe\handler\InGamePacketHandler#190572)
Use a bot or proxy to send a packet when editing a sign. This packet should contain an NBT with incorrect types but correct architecture.
This makes it possible to shutdown a server for someone who knows how to operate it. As this was discovered in 4.22.1, everyone with at least this version is affected.
This bug was fixed by 0c250a2ef09627b48aa52302f6cc7e1f2afb70ea in the 4.22.3 and 5.2.1 releases.
A plugin may be able to handle DataPacketReceiveEvent for BlockActorDataPacket, and verify that the FrontText tag is a TAG_Compound.
| Software | Affected versions |
|---|---|
pocketmine / pocketmine-mp
|
>= 4.20.0, < 4.22.3 |
pocketmine / pocketmine-mp
|
>= 5.0.0, < 5.2.1 |
A vulnerability database tells you what is broken. Attack surface management tells you where it is running: it discovers your internet-facing assets and flags the ones affected by issues like this one.
What is attack surface management? →A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.
A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.
Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.
Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.
SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.