CVE-2006-6352 in F-Prot Antivirus
Summary
by MITRE
FRISK Software F-Prot Antivirus before 4.6.7 allows user-assisted remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via a crafted ACE file. NOTE: this issue has at least a partial overlap with CVE-2006-6294.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/18/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2006-6352 affects FRISK Software F-Prot Antivirus versions prior to 4.6.7, representing a significant security flaw that enables remote attackers to trigger a denial of service condition through specifically crafted ACE archive files. This vulnerability operates under the principle of input validation failure, where the antivirus software fails to properly handle malformed or maliciously constructed archive files, leading to system instability and service disruption. The issue manifests as an infinite loop within the antivirus processing engine when encountering these specially crafted ACE files, effectively consuming system resources and rendering the protection service unavailable to legitimate users.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate boundary checking and input sanitization within the ACE file decompression routines of the F-Prot antivirus engine. When the software attempts to process a maliciously constructed ACE file, the parsing logic becomes trapped in an infinite loop due to malformed header structures or recursive references within the archive format. This condition represents a classic example of a resource exhaustion attack pattern where the attacker leverages the software's failure to properly validate file structures to consume system resources indefinitely. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-835, which specifically addresses infinite loops in software implementations, and demonstrates how improper input validation can lead to denial of service conditions.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a critical risk to organizations relying on F-Prot antivirus solutions, as it allows attackers to remotely disrupt security services without requiring elevated privileges or extensive technical expertise. The user-assisted nature of the attack means that the vulnerability requires some form of user interaction to be exploited, typically involving the opening or scanning of a maliciously crafted ACE file, but this requirement does not significantly reduce the overall threat level. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise the entire security infrastructure, as antivirus systems are fundamental components of endpoint protection and threat detection capabilities.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should prioritize immediate remediation through the installation of F-Prot Antivirus version 4.6.7 or later, which includes patched implementations of the ACE file processing routines. Security teams should also implement network monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts and consider temporary network segmentation to limit the attack surface. The vulnerability's relationship to CVE-2006-6294 indicates that similar issues may exist within the same software family, suggesting that comprehensive vulnerability assessments should be conducted to identify additional potential weaknesses in the antivirus suite. This issue aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks, and highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date security software to prevent exploitation of known vulnerabilities.