CVE-2004-2389 in Gadu-Gadu Transport
Summary
by MITRE
Unknown vulnerability in Jabber Gadu-Gadu Transport (a.k.a. jabber-gg-transport) 2.0.x before 2.0.8 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via user re-registration.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/08/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-2389 affects the Jabber Gadu-Gadu Transport component, which serves as a bridge between the Jabber/XMPP messaging protocol and the Gadu-Gadu instant messaging service. This transport mechanism enables users to communicate across different messaging platforms through a standardized XMPP interface. The specific issue resides in version 2.0.x prior to 2.0.8, where a flaw in the user registration handling process creates a condition that can be exploited by remote attackers to disrupt service availability.
The technical flaw manifests as an infinite loop condition that occurs during the user re-registration process within the jabber-gg-transport software. When a remote attacker sends specially crafted registration requests to the transport service, the system enters a state where it continuously processes the same registration sequence without proper termination conditions. This programming error creates a denial of service scenario where legitimate service operations become impossible as system resources are consumed by the looping process. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and requires no authentication to exploit, making it particularly dangerous for public-facing services.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise the entire messaging infrastructure that relies on the affected transport component. Organizations using this transport for cross-platform communication would experience complete service unavailability for users attempting to register or re-register with the Gadu-Gadu service through Jabber protocols. The infinite loop consumes CPU cycles and memory resources, potentially leading to system crashes or degraded performance that affects all users of the messaging platform. This type of vulnerability represents a classic example of a resource exhaustion attack that can be executed with minimal technical expertise.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on immediate patch deployment to upgrade to version 2.0.8 or later, which contains the necessary code fixes to prevent the infinite loop condition. Network administrators should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual registration patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-835, which describes the weakness of an infinite loop or infinite recursion in software implementations, and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. Additional defensive measures include implementing rate limiting on registration requests, configuring firewalls to restrict access to the transport service, and establishing automated alerting mechanisms for abnormal resource consumption patterns. Organizations should also consider implementing intrusion detection systems that can identify the specific packet patterns associated with this exploit to provide early warning of potential attacks.