CVE-2005-1792 in Windows
Summary
by MITRE
Memory leak in Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service allows attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and crash) by creating security contexts more quickly than they can be cleared from the RPC cache.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/17/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-1792 represents a critical memory management flaw within the Windows Management Instrumentation service that operates at the core of system administration and monitoring capabilities. This issue specifically targets the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) cache mechanism that WMI employs to manage security contexts for remote operations. The flaw manifests when attackers exploit the rate at which security contexts are created versus the rate at which they are properly cleared from the RPC cache, creating a scenario where memory resources become progressively consumed until system stability is compromised. The vulnerability falls under the category of memory leak conditions that are particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where WMI is extensively utilized for system monitoring, patch management, and remote administration tasks.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability leverages the inherent design of WMI's security context handling within the Windows operating system's RPC infrastructure. When WMI processes remote requests through RPC, it maintains security contexts in a cache to optimize performance and maintain session state information. However, the flaw occurs when attackers can rapidly create these security contexts without allowing sufficient time for proper cleanup, causing the cache to fill with stale entries that cannot be effectively managed by the system's garbage collection mechanisms. This creates a progressive memory consumption pattern that can lead to system instability, application crashes, and ultimately complete denial of service for legitimate WMI operations. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because WMI is a fundamental component of Windows management infrastructure that many critical system services depend upon for their operation.
The operational impact of CVE-2005-1792 extends far beyond simple resource exhaustion, as it affects the fundamental reliability and availability of Windows-based systems in enterprise environments. When exploited, this vulnerability can cause cascading failures across multiple system components that rely on WMI for their functionality, including automated patch deployment systems, monitoring tools, and administrative scripts that depend on remote WMI queries. The memory leak can accumulate to the point where system performance degrades significantly, leading to application timeouts, service interruptions, and complete system crashes that require manual intervention and system restarts. This vulnerability specifically aligns with attack patterns documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the 'Resource Exhaustion' technique category, where adversaries target system resources to deny service to legitimate users. The impact is particularly severe in large enterprise networks where WMI is heavily utilized for centralized management, as a single exploited system can potentially disrupt operations across multiple network segments.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require a multi-layered approach that addresses both immediate system protection and long-term architectural improvements. Organizations should implement immediate patch management procedures to deploy the relevant Windows security updates that correct the RPC cache handling behavior in WMI services. System administrators should also consider implementing monitoring solutions that can detect unusual patterns of WMI activity or memory consumption that might indicate exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and access control measures can limit the potential impact of exploitation by restricting unauthorized access to WMI services. Additionally, implementing proper resource limits and timeouts on WMI operations can prevent attackers from creating excessive security contexts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper cache management and resource cleanup in system design, aligning with CWE-404, which specifically addresses improper resource cleanup or release in software systems. Organizations should also consider implementing intrusion detection systems that can identify patterns consistent with this type of resource exhaustion attack and establish baseline performance metrics to quickly identify when systems are experiencing abnormal memory consumption patterns that could indicate exploitation of this vulnerability.