CVE-2005-4425 in WinRoute Firewall
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in Kerio WinRoute Firewall before 6.1.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via certain RTSP streams.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/02/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-4425 represents a critical security flaw within Kerio WinRoute Firewall software versions prior to 6.1.3. This issue manifests as an unspecified weakness that specifically targets the firewall's handling of Real-Time Streaming Protocol streams, creating a remote attack vector that can lead to system instability and complete service disruption. The vulnerability resides in the firewall's media processing capabilities, where improper handling of malformed or specially crafted RTSP traffic can trigger unexpected behavior in the underlying network processing stack.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and error handling within the RTSP stream processing module of the Kerio WinRoute Firewall. When the firewall receives specially crafted RTSP packets, the system fails to properly sanitize or validate the incoming stream data, leading to memory corruption or stack overflow conditions that ultimately cause the firewall service to crash and become unavailable. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of buffer overflow conditions and improper input validation, which are commonly classified as CWE-121 and CWE-125 in the Common Weakness Enumeration catalog, representing stack-based buffer overflow and heap-based buffer overflow respectively. The attack can be executed remotely without requiring authentication, making it particularly dangerous for network infrastructure devices.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can effectively render the firewall inoperable and compromise network security. Organizations relying on Kerio WinRoute Firewall for network protection face significant risk when exposed to this vulnerability, as the denial of service condition can persist until manual intervention occurs or the system is rebooted. Network administrators may experience extended downtime while troubleshooting the issue, potentially leaving their networks vulnerable to other attacks during the recovery period. The vulnerability also demonstrates a lack of proper error handling and graceful degradation mechanisms within the firewall's architecture, which is particularly concerning given that firewalls serve as critical security boundaries in network infrastructure. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1499.004 for network denial of service and T1595.001 for network infiltration techniques, as attackers can leverage this weakness to gain unauthorized access to network resources through service disruption.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2005-4425 should prioritize immediate software updates to version 6.1.3 or later, which contain the necessary patches to address the RTSP stream handling vulnerabilities. Network administrators should also implement additional defensive measures such as traffic filtering rules that limit RTSP traffic to trusted sources or disable RTSP processing entirely if the service is not required. The firewall configuration should be reviewed to ensure that unnecessary media processing capabilities are disabled, reducing the attack surface. Organizations should also consider implementing network monitoring solutions that can detect unusual traffic patterns or service disruptions that might indicate exploitation attempts. Security teams should establish incident response procedures specifically addressing firewall service outages and ensure that backup security measures are in place to maintain network protection during remediation activities. Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other network security devices and ensure comprehensive protection across the entire network infrastructure.