CVE-2006-1364 in ASP.NET
Summary
by MITRE
Microsoft w3wp (aka w3wp.exe) does not properly handle when the AspCompat directive is not used when referencing COM components in ASP.NET, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption or crash) by repeatedly requesting each of several documents that refer to COM components, or are restricted documents located under the ASP.NET application path.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/19/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2006-1364 affects Microsoft's web processing executable w3wp.exe which serves as the worker process for ASP.NET applications within IIS environments. This flaw specifically manifests when the AspCompat directive is omitted in ASP.NET pages that reference COM components, creating a condition where the application pool process fails to properly manage COM object lifecycle and resource allocation. The issue stems from the improper handling of COM component references within the ASP.NET runtime environment, where the absence of explicit compatibility settings leads to resource management failures during concurrent request processing.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through repeated HTTP requests targeting specific documents within an ASP.NET application that contain references to COM components without the AspCompat directive. When these requests are processed, the w3wp.exe worker process attempts to instantiate and manage COM objects without proper thread affinity handling, leading to resource exhaustion or application crashes. The vulnerability operates at the intersection of ASP.NET's request processing pipeline and COM component management, where the lack of proper thread context handling creates a memory leak scenario or uncontrolled resource consumption that eventually results in process termination or system instability.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to web application availability and system stability within Microsoft IIS environments. Attackers can leverage this weakness to perform denial of service attacks against ASP.NET applications by simply repeatedly requesting specific documents that trigger the problematic code path. The resource consumption pattern typically manifests as increased memory usage, CPU utilization, and eventually process crashes that require manual intervention to restore service availability. The attack vector is particularly effective because it requires minimal privileges and can be executed through standard web requests without requiring specialized tools or extensive knowledge of the underlying system architecture.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which addresses "Uncontrolled Resource Consumption," and demonstrates characteristics consistent with the attack pattern described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the "Resource Exhaustion" technique. The flaw represents a classic example of improper resource management within web application frameworks, where the failure to properly handle COM object references creates a predictable pattern of resource consumption that can be exploited systematically. Organizations running ASP.NET applications on IIS servers without proper mitigation measures face potential service disruption that could impact business operations and customer access to web services.
The recommended mitigation strategies include implementing the AspCompat directive with appropriate values in ASP.NET pages that reference COM components, ensuring that all COM object references include proper thread affinity settings. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing request rate limiting and monitoring mechanisms to detect unusual patterns of resource consumption that may indicate exploitation attempts. Microsoft released security updates and patches addressing this specific vulnerability, and system administrators should ensure all affected systems are properly updated. The implementation of proper application design patterns that avoid reliance on problematic COM integration or proper use of thread-safe COM object management practices provides long-term protection against similar vulnerabilities in the ASP.NET application lifecycle.