Pivotal RabbitMQ, versions 3.7.x prior to 3.7.21 and 3.8.x prior to 3.8.1, and RabbitMQ for Pivotal Platform, 1.16.x versions prior to 1.16.7 and 1.17.x versions prior to 1.17.4, contain a web management plugin that is vulnerable to a denial of service attack. The X-Reason HTTP Header can be leveraged to insert a malicious Erlang format string that will expand and consume the heap, resulting in the server crashing.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rabbitmq_server | Broadcom | 3.8.0 (including) | 3.8.1 (excluding) |
| Rabbitmq | Pivotal_software | 1.16.0 (including) | 1.16.7 (excluding) |
| Rabbitmq | Pivotal_software | 1.17.0 (including) | 1.17.4 (excluding) |
| Rabbitmq | Pivotal_software | 3.7.0 (including) | 3.7.21 (excluding) |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 15.0 (Stein) | RedHat | rabbitmq-server-0:3.7.22-1.el8ost | * |
| Rabbitmq-server | Ubuntu | bionic | * |
| Rabbitmq-server | Ubuntu | disco | * |
| Rabbitmq-server | Ubuntu | eoan | * |
| Rabbitmq-server | Ubuntu | esm-infra/bionic | * |
| Rabbitmq-server | Ubuntu | esm-infra/xenial | * |
| Rabbitmq-server | Ubuntu | trusty | * |
| Rabbitmq-server | Ubuntu | xenial | * |
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.