CVE-2005-0398 in Racoon
Summary
by MITRE
The KAME racoon daemon in ipsec-tools before 0.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via malformed ISAKMP packets.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/31/2019
The CVE-2005-0398 vulnerability targets the KAME racoon daemon, which serves as an Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) key management daemon within the ipsec-tools suite. This daemon operates as a critical component in establishing and maintaining secure communications through IPsec protocols, specifically handling the Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) negotiations between security gateways. The vulnerability exists in versions prior to 0.5 of the ipsec-tools package, making it particularly significant as it affects a widely deployed implementation of IPsec key management functionality.
The technical flaw manifests through insufficient input validation mechanisms within the racoon daemon's processing of ISAKMP packets. When the daemon receives malformed ISAKMP packets from remote attackers, it fails to properly sanitize or reject these malformed inputs, leading to a crash condition that results in complete service disruption. This represents a classic buffer overflow or parsing error vulnerability where the daemon's state machine or packet parsing routines lack proper boundary checks and validation logic. The vulnerability operates at the network protocol level, specifically targeting the ISAKMP message processing functionality that governs the initial phase of IPsec security association establishment.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption as it creates a potential vector for denial of service attacks against IPsec-enabled networks. Remote attackers can exploit this weakness to repeatedly crash the racoon daemon, effectively preventing legitimate IPsec negotiations from completing and rendering the affected system unable to establish secure connections. This compromises network security infrastructure by creating a persistent availability issue that can be leveraged by malicious actors to disrupt communications, particularly in environments where IPsec is critical for secure remote access, site-to-site connections, or VPN services. The vulnerability directly impacts the availability aspect of the CIA triad, potentially enabling attackers to maintain persistent disruption of security services.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily involve immediate patching of affected systems to upgrade to ipsec-tools version 0.5 or later, which includes proper input validation and error handling for ISAKMP packet processing. Network administrators should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual packet patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, as well as deploy intrusion detection systems capable of identifying malformed ISAKMP traffic. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and access controls can limit the attack surface, while regular security audits should verify that all IPsec implementations properly validate incoming packets. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes buffer overflow conditions, and represents a typical ATT&CK technique for network denial of service attacks under the T1498 category. Organizations should also consider implementing redundant IPsec implementations or failover mechanisms to maintain network availability during exploitation attempts.