CVE-2004-2665 in HP-UX
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Address and Routing Parameter Area (ARPA) transport software in HP-UX B.11.00, B.11.04, and B.11.11 before 20040628 allows local users to cause a denial of service via unspecified vectors.
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/04/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-2665 represents a critical security flaw within the Address and Routing Parameter Area ARPA transport software component of Hewlett-Packard's Unix operating system variants. This issue affects multiple versions of HP-UX including B.11.00, B.11.04, and B.11.11, specifically before the patch release of June 28, 2004, indicating that the vulnerability was present in widely deployed enterprise systems. The ARPA transport software serves as a fundamental networking layer responsible for managing network communication parameters and routing information, making it a critical component for system stability and network operations.
The technical nature of this vulnerability manifests as an unspecified flaw within the ARPA transport software that enables local users to trigger a denial of service condition. While the exact technical mechanism remains unspecified in the CVE description, such vulnerabilities typically arise from improper input validation, memory management errors, or buffer overflow conditions within network protocol implementations. The fact that this is a local privilege escalation vector suggests that attackers with legitimate user access could exploit this weakness to disrupt system services, potentially affecting network connectivity and overall system availability. This vulnerability operates at the transport layer of the networking stack, which means it could impact multiple network services that depend on stable ARPA functionality.
From an operational perspective, the impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise the reliability of enterprise network infrastructure. Local users with access to systems running affected HP-UX versions could exploit this weakness to cause cascading failures in network services, affecting business continuity and potentially creating opportunities for more sophisticated attacks. The vulnerability's presence in multiple HP-UX versions indicates a widespread exposure across enterprise environments, particularly those relying on legacy systems that may not have been regularly updated. Organizations running these vulnerable systems faced significant risk as the local user could potentially disrupt critical network communications, leading to extended downtime and operational disruption.
The remediation approach for this vulnerability required immediate patch application from HP, specifically targeting the ARPA transport software component. System administrators needed to apply the security update released on June 28, 2004, which would have addressed the underlying flaw in the transport software implementation. Organizations should have implemented comprehensive vulnerability management processes to identify all affected systems and ensure timely patch deployment. This vulnerability aligns with CWE categories related to improper input validation and transport layer security issues, and represents a classic example of how network protocol implementations can create denial of service vectors. The ATT&CK framework would categorize this under privilege escalation and denial of service techniques, where local users can leverage system weaknesses to compromise availability. Organizations should have conducted thorough risk assessments to determine the potential impact of this vulnerability on their specific network configurations and implemented appropriate monitoring to detect exploitation attempts.