CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2018-20030

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Published: Feb 20, 2019 | Modified: Nov 21, 2024
CVSS 3.x
7.5
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.x
7.8 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
5.5 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Ubuntu
LOW

An error when processing the EXIF_IFD_INTEROPERABILITY and EXIF_IFD_EXIF tags within libexif version 0.6.21 can be exploited to exhaust available CPU resources.

Weakness

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Libexif Libexif_project 0.6.21 (including) 0.6.21 (including)
Libexif Ubuntu bionic *
Libexif Ubuntu cosmic *
Libexif Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Libexif Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Libexif Ubuntu esm-infra/xenial *
Libexif Ubuntu trusty *
Libexif Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Libexif Ubuntu xenial *

Potential Mitigations

  • 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.

References