CVE-2018-0165

A vulnerability in the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packet-processing functionality of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to exhaust buffers on an affected device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition, aka a Memory Leak. The vulnerability is due to the affected software insufficiently processing IGMP Membership Query packets that are sent to an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a large number of IGMP Membership Query packets, which contain certain values, to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust buffers on the affected device, resulting in a DoS condition that requires the device to be reloaded manually. This vulnerability affects: Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switches with Supervisor Engine 8-E, if they are running Cisco IOS XE Software Release 3.x.x.E and IP multicast routing is configured; Cisco devices that are running Cisco IOS XE Software Release 16.x, if IP multicast routing is configured. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCuw09295, CSCve94496.

Weakness

The product does not release a resource after its effective lifetime has ended, i.e., after the resource is no longer needed.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
• For example, languages such as Java, Ruby, and Lisp perform automatic garbage collection that releases memory for objects that have been deallocated.
• Use resource-limiting settings provided by the operating system or environment. For example, when managing system resources in POSIX, setrlimit() can be used to set limits for certain types of resources, and getrlimit() can determine how many resources are available. However, these functions are not available on all operating systems.
• When the current levels get close to the maximum that is defined for the application (see CWE-770), then limit the allocation of further resources to privileged users; alternately, begin releasing resources for less-privileged users. While this mitigation may protect the system from attack, it will not necessarily stop attackers from adversely impacting other users.
• Ensure that the application performs the appropriate error checks and error handling in case resources become unavailable (CWE-703).

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/469.html

References

• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/103568
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040592
• https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20180328-igmp