An unprivileged attacker with connectivity to the IMM2 could cause a denial of service attack on the IMM2 (Versions earlier than 4.4 for Lenovo System x and earlier than 6.4 for IBM System x). Flooding the IMM2 with a high volume of authentication failures via the Common Information Model (CIM) used by LXCA and OneCLI and other tools can exhaust available system memory which can cause the IMM2 to reboot itself until the requests cease.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flex_system_x240_m5_firmware | Lenova | * | 4.4 (excluding) |
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.