The Mirai botnet through 2024-08-19 mishandles simultaneous TCP connections to the CNC (command and control) server. Unauthenticated sessions remain open, causing resource consumption. For example, an attacker can send a recognized username (such as root), or can send arbitrary data.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
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.