CVE-2004-2724 in Chat Anywhere
Summary
by MITRE
LionMax Software Chat Anywhere 2.72a allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (server crash and client CPU consumption) via a username beginning with percent (%) followed by a null character.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/19/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-2724 affects LionMax Software Chat Anywhere version 2.72a, representing a significant denial of service weakness that can be exploited remotely by malicious actors. This vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the application's username handling mechanism, specifically when processing usernames that begin with a percent (%) character followed by a null character. The flaw demonstrates characteristics consistent with buffer overflow conditions and improper input sanitization, creating opportunities for attackers to disrupt service availability and consume excessive system resources.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability exploits the application's failure to properly validate and sanitize user input during the authentication and session establishment phases. When a malicious user submits a username starting with % followed by a null character, the software's parsing logic becomes confused and potentially enters an infinite loop or encounters memory corruption issues. This behavior directly maps to CWE-129, which describes improper validation of length of input buffers, and CWE-770, which addresses allocation of resources without limits or with inadequate limits. The null character termination issue creates a scenario where the application's string handling functions may not properly terminate strings or may attempt to process malformed input sequences.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe risk to system availability and performance. Remote attackers can trigger server crashes that require manual intervention to restore service, while simultaneously consuming excessive CPU resources through malformed username processing. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption as the malicious behavior can be amplified through automated tools to create sustained denial of service conditions. This vulnerability particularly affects environments where the chat application serves as a critical communication platform, as the disruption can cascade to affect business operations and user productivity.
The attack vector for this vulnerability is straightforward and requires minimal technical expertise to exploit effectively. An attacker needs only to register or authenticate with a specially crafted username that begins with % followed by a null character to initiate the denial of service conditions. This weakness aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which describes network denial of service attacks, and demonstrates how seemingly minor input validation issues can create substantial operational impacts. The vulnerability's remote nature means that attackers can exploit it from anywhere on the network without requiring local system access or credentials.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include immediate software patching or upgrading to versions that properly validate and sanitize username inputs. Organizations should implement input validation controls that reject usernames containing null characters or malformed sequences before they reach the application's core processing logic. Network-level filtering can be implemented to block suspicious username patterns, while application-level protections should include proper string length validation and null termination checks. Additionally, system monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual CPU consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The remediation approach should follow security best practices outlined in NIST SP 800-160 and OWASP Top Ten guidelines for input validation and resource management to prevent similar vulnerabilities from occurring in other components of the system architecture.