CVE-2004-0278 in World Of Outlaws Sprint Cars
Summary
by MITRE
Ratbag game engine, as used in products such as Dirt Track Racing, Leadfoot, and World of Outlaws Spring Cars, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a TCP packet that specifies the length of data to read and then sends a second TCP packet that contains less data than specified, which causes Ratbag to repeatedly check the socket for more data.
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/08/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-0278 affects the Ratbag game engine implementation within several racing simulation products including Dirt Track Racing, Leadfoot, and World of Outlaws Spring Cars. This flaw represents a classic buffer underflow condition that manifests during network communication handling, specifically when processing TCP packets with mismatched data lengths. The vulnerability operates through a fundamental protocol violation where the initial TCP packet declares a specific data length, followed by a second packet containing insufficient data to meet the previously declared length requirement.
The technical mechanism behind this vulnerability involves the Ratbag engine's inadequate handling of TCP socket data retrieval operations. When the system receives a packet specifying a certain data length and subsequently processes a second packet with less data than declared, the engine enters an inefficient loop where it continuously polls the socket for additional data that will never arrive. This condition creates a resource exhaustion scenario where the CPU becomes consumed in endless checking operations, effectively rendering the affected application unresponsive and causing a denial of service condition. The flaw demonstrates poor input validation and inadequate error handling in network protocol processing.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to gaming services and applications that rely on the Ratbag engine for network communication. Attackers can exploit this weakness remotely without requiring authentication or specialized privileges, making it particularly dangerous for online gaming environments where multiple players interact through network connections. The sustained CPU consumption can impact not only individual game instances but potentially affect entire gaming servers or network infrastructure components. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-129, which addresses improper validation of the length of data to be read, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks.
The mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include implementing proper input validation mechanisms that verify data length consistency before processing TCP packets, establishing timeouts for socket operations to prevent indefinite polling, and applying protocol-level checks that detect and reject malformed packet sequences. Software vendors should implement comprehensive error handling routines that gracefully manage cases where declared data lengths do not match actual received data, while also incorporating network traffic monitoring to detect anomalous patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, network-level firewalls and intrusion detection systems should be configured to monitor for suspicious TCP packet patterns that could indicate exploitation of this vulnerability, ensuring that affected systems maintain availability and continue to provide service to legitimate users.