CVE-2001-0613 in OmniHTTPD
Summary
by MITRE
Omnicron Technologies OmniHTTPD Professional 2.08 and earlier allows a remote attacker to create a denial of service via a long POST URL request.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/18/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2001-0613 affects Omnicron Technologies OmniHTTPD Professional version 2.08 and earlier implementations, representing a classic denial of service weakness that exploits the server's handling of malformed HTTP requests. This particular flaw manifests when a remote attacker crafts a specially constructed POST request containing an excessively long URL parameter, causing the web server to become unresponsive or crash entirely. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and buffer management within the HTTP request processing pipeline, where the server fails to properly handle or truncate overly long URL components during POST operations.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability involves sending a malicious HTTP POST request with an abnormally long URL that exceeds the server's internal buffer capacity or processing limits. When the OmniHTTPD server attempts to parse and process this malformed request, it encounters a buffer overflow condition or memory corruption scenario that results in system instability. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of improper input validation as classified by CWE-20, where the software does not adequately validate or sanitize input data before processing. The flaw represents a fundamental weakness in the server's request handling architecture, particularly in how it manages URL parsing and parameter extraction during HTTP POST operations.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to system availability and service integrity, as remote attackers can easily disrupt web services by sending a single malicious request. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially affect business continuity and customer satisfaction, especially in environments where continuous web service availability is critical. The vulnerability affects the server's ability to maintain normal operations and can be exploited repeatedly, making it particularly dangerous in production environments. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1499.004 for network denial of service and T1595.001 for network reconnaissance, as attackers can use this weakness to assess system stability and potentially escalate their attacks.
The mitigation strategies for CVE-2001-0613 primarily involve applying the vendor-provided security patches and updates that address the buffer handling and input validation issues within the OmniHTTPD server implementation. System administrators should implement proper input sanitization measures and configure appropriate request size limits to prevent excessively long URLs from being processed. Network-level protections such as intrusion detection systems and web application firewalls can also provide additional layers of defense by monitoring and filtering suspicious HTTP request patterns. Additionally, implementing rate limiting and connection throttling mechanisms can help reduce the impact of potential denial of service attacks. Organizations should also consider upgrading to newer versions of web server software that have addressed this specific vulnerability and improved their overall security posture. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the importance of proper input validation and buffer management in web server implementations, as highlighted by the CWE-20 classification that emphasizes the need for comprehensive input sanitization to prevent various forms of injection and overflow attacks.