CVE-2005-1749 in WebLogic Server
Summary
by MITRE
Buffer overflow in BEA WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express 6.1 Service Pack 4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption from thread looping).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/04/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-1749 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw affecting BEA WebLogic Server and WebLogic Express versions 6.1 Service Pack 4. This security weakness resides within the application server's handling of incoming network requests, specifically when processing malformed input data that exceeds allocated buffer boundaries. The flaw manifests as an unchecked buffer overflow condition that occurs during the processing of certain protocol messages or data structures, creating an opportunity for malicious actors to exploit the system's memory management mechanisms.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the exploitation of improper input validation within the WebLogic server's protocol handling components. When remote attackers send specially crafted requests containing oversized data payloads, the server fails to properly validate the input size against predefined buffer limits. This results in memory corruption that causes the affected threads to enter infinite looping behavior, consuming excessive cpu resources and effectively rendering the server unable to process legitimate requests. The buffer overflow occurs at the application level rather than at the operating system level, making it particularly challenging to detect and prevent through traditional system-level security measures.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates a significant denial of service condition that can severely impact business continuity and availability of web applications hosted on affected WebLogic servers. The thread looping behavior consumes substantial cpu cycles and system resources, potentially leading to complete service unavailability for extended periods. Attackers can leverage this weakness to perform resource exhaustion attacks that may require system restarts to resolve, causing operational disruption and potential financial losses. The vulnerability affects organizations running legacy WebLogic Server implementations that have not been updated with security patches, particularly those in environments where system uptime is critical for business operations.
The mitigation strategies for CVE-2005-1749 primarily involve applying the official security patches released by BEA Systems and Oracle, which address the buffer overflow through proper input validation and memory boundary checking mechanisms. Organizations should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure to the vulnerable services, while also monitoring for suspicious network traffic patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and represents a classic example of how improper input validation can lead to resource exhaustion attacks. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to the privilege escalation and denial of service tactics, as attackers can leverage it to consume system resources and potentially gain unauthorized access to the server environment through sustained resource consumption attacks that may mask other exploitation attempts.