CVE-2021-22696 - Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Severity

75%

Complexity

39%

Confidentiality

60%

CXF supports (via JwtRequestCodeFilter) passing OAuth 2 parameters via a JWT token as opposed to query parameters (see: The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: JWT Secured Authorization Request (JAR)). Instead of sending a JWT token as a "request" parameter, the spec also supports specifying a URI from which to retrieve a JWT token from via the "request_uri" parameter. CXF was not validating the "request_uri" parameter (apart from ensuring it uses "https) and was making a REST request to the parameter in the request to retrieve a token. This means that CXF was vulnerable to DDos attacks on the authorization server, as specified in section 10.4.1 of the spec. This issue affects Apache CXF versions prior to 3.4.3; Apache CXF versions prior to 3.3.10.

CVSS 3.1 Base Score 7.5. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

CVSS 2.0 Base Score 5. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P).

Demo Examples

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CWE-400

The following example demonstrates the weakness.


               
}
}
}
...
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();// postpone response
...
new Thread(loop).start();
}
}
}
r.run();
...

There are no limits to runnables. Potentially an attacker could cause resource problems very quickly.

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CWE-400

This code allocates a socket and forks each time it receives a new connection.


               
}
pid = fork();

The program does not track how many connections have been made, and it does not limit the number of connections. Because forking is a relatively expensive operation, an attacker would be able to cause the system to run out of CPU, processes, or memory by making a large number of connections. Alternatively, an attacker could consume all available connections, preventing others from accessing the system remotely.

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CWE-400

In the following example a server socket connection is used to accept a request to store data on the local file system using a specified filename. The method openSocketConnection establishes a server socket to accept requests from a client. When a client establishes a connection to this service the getNextMessage method is first used to retrieve from the socket the name of the file to store the data, the openFileToWrite method will validate the filename and open a file to write to on the local file system. The getNextMessage is then used within a while loop to continuously read data from the socket and output the data to the file until there is no longer any data from the socket.


               
}
closeSocket(socket);
return(FAIL);
closeFile();
}
break;

This example creates a situation where data can be dumped to a file on the local file system without any limits on the size of the file. This could potentially exhaust file or disk resources and/or limit other clients' ability to access the service.

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CWE-400

In the following example, the processMessage method receives a two dimensional character array containing the message to be processed. The two-dimensional character array contains the length of the message in the first character array and the message body in the second character array. The getMessageLength method retrieves the integer value of the length from the first character array. After validating that the message length is greater than zero, the body character array pointer points to the start of the second character array of the two-dimensional character array and memory is allocated for the new body character array.


               
}/* process message accepts a two-dimensional character array of the form [length][body] containing the message to be processed */
}
return(SUCCESS);
return(FAIL);

This example creates a situation where the length of the body character array can be very large and will consume excessive memory, exhausting system resources. This can be avoided by restricting the length of the second character array with a maximum length check

Also, consider changing the type from 'int' to 'unsigned int', so that you are always guaranteed that the number is positive. This might not be possible if the protocol specifically requires allowing negative values, or if you cannot control the return value from getMessageLength(), but it could simplify the check to ensure the input is positive, and eliminate other errors such as signed-to-unsigned conversion errors (CWE-195) that may occur elsewhere in the code.


               
if ((length > 0) && (length < MAX_LENGTH)) {...}

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CWE-400

In the following example, a server object creates a server socket and accepts client connections to the socket. For every client connection to the socket a separate thread object is generated using the ClientSocketThread class that handles request made by the client through the socket.


               
}
} catch (IOException ex) {...}
serverSocket.close();
t.start();

In this example there is no limit to the number of client connections and client threads that are created. Allowing an unlimited number of client connections and threads could potentially overwhelm the system and system resources.

The server should limit the number of client connections and the client threads that are created. This can be easily done by creating a thread pool object that limits the number of threads that are generated.


               
}
} catch (IOException ex) {...}
serverSocket.close();
pool.execute(t);

Overview

Type

Oracle Business Intelligence

First reported 4 years ago

2021-04-02 10:15:00

Last updated 3 years ago

2021-12-10 17:04:00

Affected Software

Oracle Business Intelligence 12.2.1.3.0 Enterprise Edition

12.2.1.3.0

Oracle Business Intelligence 12.2.1.4.0 Enterprise Edition

12.2.1.4.0

References

[oss-security] 20210402 CVE-2021-22696: Apache CXF: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

N/A

[announce] 20210402 [Apache CXF] CVE-2021-22696: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

[cxf-dev] 20210402 CVE-2021-22696: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

[cxf-users] 20210402 CVE-2021-22696: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

[cxf-commits] 20210402 svn commit: r1073270 - in /websites/production/cxf/content: cache/main.pageCache security-advisories.data/CVE-2021-22696.txt.asc security-advisories.html

[oss-security] 20210402 CVE-2021-22696: Apache CXF: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory

N/A

Vendor Advisory

[announce] 20210402 [Apache CXF] CVE-2021-22696: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

Mailing List, Vendor Advisory

[cxf-dev] 20210402 CVE-2021-22696: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

Mailing List, Vendor Advisory

[cxf-users] 20210402 CVE-2021-22696: OAuth 2 authorization service vulnerable to DDos attacks

Mailing List, Vendor Advisory

[cxf-commits] 20210402 svn commit: r1073270 - in /websites/production/cxf/content: cache/main.pageCache security-advisories.data/CVE-2021-22696.txt.asc security-advisories.html

Mailing List, Vendor Advisory

[cxf-commits] 20210616 svn commit: r1075801 - in /websites/production/cxf/content: cache/main.pageCache index.html security-advisories.data/CVE-2021-30468.txt.asc security-advisories.html

[cxf-commits] 20210616 svn commit: r1075801 - in /websites/production/cxf/content: cache/main.pageCache index.html security-advisories.data/CVE-2021-30468.txt.asc security-advisories.html

Exploit, Mailing List, Vendor Advisory

https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html

https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html

Patch, Third Party Advisory

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