Multiple vulnerabilities in the Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP) feature of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to either immediately crash the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) process or make it consume available memory and eventually crash. The memory consumption may negatively impact other processes that are running on the device. These vulnerabilities are due to the incorrect handling of IGMP packets. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by sending crafted IGMP traffic to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to immediately crash the IGMP process or cause memory exhaustion, resulting in other processes becoming unstable. These processes may include, but are not limited to, interior and exterior routing protocols. Cisco will release software updates that address these vulnerabilities.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 6.1.4 (including) | 6.1.4 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 6.2.3 (including) | 6.2.3 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 6.3.3 (including) | 6.3.3 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 6.4.2 (including) | 6.4.2 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 6.5.3 (including) | 6.5.3 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 6.6.2 (including) | 6.6.2 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 6.6.3 (including) | 6.6.3 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 7.0.2 (including) | 7.0.2 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 7.1.2 (including) | 7.1.2 (including) |
| Ios_xr | Cisco | 7.1.15 (including) | 7.1.15 (including) |
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.