CVE-2003-1079 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Unknown vulnerability in UDP RPC for Solaris 2.5.1 through 9 for SPARC, and 2.5.1 through 8 for x86, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via certain arguments in RPC calls that cause large amounts of memory to be allocated.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/08/2021
This vulnerability exists within the User Datagram Protocol Remote Procedure Call implementation of Solaris operating systems across multiple versions and architectures. The issue manifests as a memory consumption denial of service condition that occurs when remote attackers submit specially crafted arguments within RPC calls. The flaw specifically affects Solaris versions 2.5.1 through 9 on SPARC architectures and 2.5.1 through 8 on x86 platforms, representing a significant portion of the Solaris ecosystem during the early 2000s. The vulnerability operates at the network protocol level, exploiting the RPC mechanism that handles distributed computing operations over UDP transport.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in inadequate input validation and memory management within the RPC processing code. When malformed or oversized arguments are passed through RPC calls, the system allocates excessive memory resources without proper bounds checking or resource limits. This memory allocation behavior creates a resource exhaustion condition where the system consumes available memory until it becomes unresponsive or crashes. The vulnerability is classified as a memory leak or memory exhaustion issue that can be triggered remotely without authentication requirements, making it particularly dangerous in networked environments. According to CWE guidelines, this represents a CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability that falls under the broader category of denial of service conditions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise entire system availability. Attackers can consume system resources at an accelerated rate through repeated RPC calls, leading to complete system instability or forced reboots. In enterprise environments where Solaris systems serve as critical infrastructure components, this vulnerability could result in significant downtime and business disruption. The remote nature of the attack means that systems are vulnerable to exploitation from any network location without requiring local access or authentication credentials. This characteristic aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers Network Denial of Service attacks targeting system resources.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include immediate implementation of network access controls to restrict RPC traffic to trusted networks, applying vendor security patches when available, and configuring system resource limits to prevent unbounded memory allocation. System administrators should also consider implementing monitoring solutions to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and resource management in distributed computing systems, particularly in protocol implementations that handle remote procedure calls. Organizations should conduct vulnerability assessments to identify all affected Solaris systems and prioritize remediation efforts based on system criticality and network exposure levels.