CVE-2005-1934 in Gaim
Summary
by MITRE
Gaim before 1.3.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a malformed MSN message that leads to a memory allocation of a large size, possibly due to an integer signedness error.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/02/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-1934 affects Gaim versions prior to 1.3.1 and represents a classic denial of service flaw stemming from improper input validation in the MSN protocol handling component. This vulnerability specifically targets the message processing functionality within the instant messaging client, where malformed MSN messages can trigger unexpected behavior in the application's memory management subsystem. The flaw manifests when the application receives a specially crafted message that contains oversized data fields, leading to an attempt to allocate an abnormally large amount of memory. This issue falls under the category of improper input validation and memory handling, which are common vectors for remote exploitation in messaging applications.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in an integer signedness error that occurs during the parsing of MSN message headers. When processing incoming messages, Gaim fails to properly validate the size parameters contained within the message structure, allowing an attacker to craft a message with a maliciously large size field. This field is interpreted as a signed integer, but due to the lack of proper bounds checking, it can overflow or be interpreted as a negative value that gets converted into a very large unsigned integer. The application then attempts to allocate memory based on this calculated size, resulting in either a crash when the system cannot fulfill the allocation request or a denial of service condition where the application becomes unresponsive while attempting to handle the malformed data. This behavior aligns with CWE-128, which addresses signedness errors in integer operations, and CWE-704, which covers improper input validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple application instability, as it can be exploited by remote attackers without any authentication requirements or user interaction. An attacker positioned on the network can simply send a malformed MSN message to any target running an affected version of Gaim, causing the application to crash and potentially requiring manual restart to restore functionality. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where instant messaging clients are actively used for business communications, as it can disrupt workflow and communication channels. The vulnerability also demonstrates how protocol parsing flaws can lead to resource exhaustion attacks, where the attacker consumes system resources without necessarily gaining direct access to the underlying system. From an adversarial perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which involves network denial of service attacks targeting application availability.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected Gaim installations to version 1.3.1 or later, where the memory allocation handling has been corrected to properly validate message size parameters. System administrators should implement network monitoring to detect unusual message patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, while also considering network segmentation to limit the potential impact of such attacks. Additionally, implementing input validation at the network level through firewalls or intrusion prevention systems can help filter out malformed MSN messages before they reach vulnerable clients. The fix implemented in the patched version addresses the integer signedness error by adding proper bounds checking and ensuring that message size parameters are validated against reasonable limits before any memory allocation occurs. Organizations should also consider implementing application whitelisting policies that restrict execution of untrusted instant messaging clients and maintain up-to-date vulnerability assessments to identify other potential protocol parsing vulnerabilities in similar messaging applications.