Tornado is a Python web framework and asynchronous networking library. Prior to 6.6.0, Tornado decodes HTTP/1.1 chunked transfer encoding by processing body data that has already arrived without yielding to the event loop. A remote unauthenticated peer can send millions of one-byte chunks to monopolize the process event loop and stall every other connection served by that process, while lowering max_body_size only limits the duration of each request. For handlers that do not use @stream_request_body, retaining each chunk as a separate object can consume roughly twenty times the received body size, and SimpleAsyncHTTPClient has the same event-loop behavior when reading a response from a malicious server. This issue is fixed in version 6.6.0.
Weakness
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
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.
Related Attack Patterns
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/147.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/227.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/492.html