CVE-2007-2045 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the IP implementation in Sun Solaris 8 and 9 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via crafted IP packets, probably related to fragmented packets with duplicate or missing fragments.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/08/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-2045 represents a significant weakness in the Internet Protocol implementation within Sun Solaris 8 and 9 operating systems. This issue manifests as a remote denial of service condition that can be triggered through the careful construction of IP packets, specifically targeting the handling of fragmented network traffic. The vulnerability operates at the network protocol level, exploiting fundamental aspects of how the operating system processes and reassembles IP fragments, which constitutes a critical flaw in the core networking stack.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when remote attackers send specially crafted IP packets that contain fragmented data with either duplicate or missing fragments. This particular pattern of packet construction causes the Solaris kernel to enter an excessive CPU consumption state during the processing of these malformed fragments. The system's IP reassembly logic becomes overwhelmed as it attempts to handle the anomalous fragment sequences, leading to sustained high CPU utilization that effectively renders the affected system unable to process legitimate network traffic properly. This behavior aligns with common patterns observed in resource exhaustion attacks and represents a classic example of how malformed input can cause system instability.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates severe disruption to network services running on affected Solaris systems. The denial of service condition can persist for extended periods, potentially requiring system reboot to restore normal operations, and may be difficult to detect and mitigate in real-time network environments. The vulnerability affects systems where network connectivity is critical, potentially impacting enterprise infrastructure, web servers, and network services that rely on stable Solaris implementations. Organizations running these older Solaris versions face significant risk of service interruption, particularly in environments where network traffic is heavy or where the systems are exposed to untrusted network segments.
The underlying flaw demonstrates weaknesses in the kernel's fragment reassembly logic and highlights the importance of robust input validation in network protocol implementations. This vulnerability is categorized under CWE-129, which deals with insufficient validation of length fields, and relates to the broader class of resource exhaustion vulnerabilities that can be exploited to cause system instability. From an attacker's perspective, this represents a low-effort, high-impact method of service disruption that requires minimal specialized knowledge to execute effectively. The vulnerability's classification under ATT&CK technique T1498 suggests it fits within the category of "Network Denial of Service" attacks that target system resources to prevent legitimate use of network services.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily involve applying the appropriate security patches provided by Sun Microsystems, which address the specific kernel handling of fragmented IP packets. Organizations should prioritize updating affected systems to newer Solaris versions or applying the relevant security advisories that contain fixes for the IP reassembly logic. Network segmentation and firewall rules can provide temporary protection by limiting exposure to untrusted networks, though these measures do not address the underlying kernel vulnerability. System administrators should also implement monitoring to detect unusual CPU consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, and consider implementing rate limiting on fragmented packet processing to reduce the impact of potential attacks. The vulnerability underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and the critical nature of kernel-level security fixes in preventing widespread service disruption across enterprise networks.