CVE-2001-0998 in HACMP
Summary
by MITRE
IBM HACMP 4.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a completed TCP connection to HACMP ports (e.g., using a port scan) that does not send additional data, which causes a failure in snmpd.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/04/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2001-0998 affects IBM HACMP 4.4, a high availability cluster management solution designed to provide fault tolerance and failover capabilities for enterprise systems. This vulnerability represents a specific denial of service weakness that exploits the handling of TCP connections within the HACMP service ports, particularly impacting the SNMP daemon component that is integral to system monitoring and management functions. The flaw manifests when remote attackers establish completed TCP connections to designated HACMP ports without transmitting any additional data, creating a scenario that triggers system instability and service disruption.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the improper handling of TCP connection states within the HACMP daemon processes. When a TCP connection reaches the established state but contains no application data, the system fails to properly manage this connection state, leading to resource exhaustion or internal state corruption within the snmpd process. This behavior creates a condition where legitimate system operations can be disrupted through seemingly benign network scanning activities. The vulnerability specifically targets the SNMP monitoring daemon that is part of the HACMP framework, which is responsible for collecting and reporting system metrics and status information. The flaw demonstrates a classic case of inadequate input validation and connection state management, where the system does not properly account for connections that complete the TCP handshake but remain idle.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to high availability environments where system uptime and reliability are critical. The denial of service condition affects not only the immediate availability of HACMP services but also compromises the monitoring capabilities that organizations rely upon to maintain system health and detect failures. Network administrators who perform routine port scanning activities or who encounter automated scanning tools may inadvertently trigger this vulnerability, causing unexpected service disruptions that could go unnoticed until the system becomes unavailable. The impact extends beyond simple service interruption as it affects the broader monitoring infrastructure that supports high availability configurations, potentially masking underlying system issues or creating cascading failures in clustered environments where multiple systems depend on coordinated monitoring.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing network-level controls to prevent unauthorized access to HACMP ports and establishing proper connection handling mechanisms within the system. Organizations should deploy firewall rules to restrict access to HACMP service ports to authorized management systems only, while also implementing connection rate limiting to prevent abuse of the vulnerable TCP handling mechanism. The system should be configured to properly timeout idle connections and to implement proper resource management to prevent exhaustion attacks. Additionally, regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify and remediate similar issues within the broader system architecture. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which addresses improper handling of resources, and represents a specific instance of the broader category of denial of service vulnerabilities that can affect system availability and operational continuity. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this under privilege escalation and denial of service techniques where adversaries exploit weaknesses in system resource management to disrupt services, making it essential for security teams to implement comprehensive monitoring and access control measures to prevent exploitation of such vulnerabilities.