CVE-2007-3114 in MaraDNS
Summary
by MITRE
Memory leak in server/MaraDNS.c in MaraDNS before 1.2.12.05, and 1.3.x before 1.3.03, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via unspecified vectors, a different set of affected versions than CVE-2007-3115 and CVE-2007-3116.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/20/2021
The vulnerability described in CVE-2007-3114 represents a critical memory leak issue within the MaraDNS server implementation that affects multiple version ranges including pre-1.2.12.05 and pre-1.3.03 releases. This memory leak occurs in the server/MaraDNS.c component of the DNS server software, specifically manifesting during the processing of certain network requests that trigger improper memory management practices. The flaw allows remote attackers to exploit this weakness by sending specially crafted DNS queries or requests that cause the server to allocate memory without properly deallocating it, leading to progressive memory consumption over time. Unlike related vulnerabilities CVE-2007-3115 and CVE-2007-3116 which affected different components or versions, this particular vulnerability demonstrates the complexity of memory management issues in network server applications where resource exhaustion can occur through seemingly benign network traffic patterns.
The technical implementation of this memory leak stems from inadequate memory deallocation routines within the DNS server's processing pipeline. When the MaraDNS server receives certain types of queries, it fails to properly release allocated memory blocks that were dynamically allocated during the request processing cycle. This improper memory management creates a condition where each malicious or repeated request consumes additional memory without corresponding cleanup operations, resulting in gradual memory exhaustion. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and leverages the server's response handling mechanisms to perpetually consume available memory resources. The unspecified vectors suggest that multiple types of DNS requests or malformed query patterns can trigger this behavior, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can be exploited through various attack vectors without requiring specific knowledge of the exact triggering conditions.
The operational impact of this memory leak vulnerability creates significant risk for systems running affected versions of MaraDNS, as it can lead to complete denial of service conditions where the server becomes unresponsive due to memory exhaustion. Attackers can maintain persistent resource consumption by repeatedly sending requests that trigger the memory leak, effectively causing a gradual degradation of service availability. This vulnerability particularly affects DNS servers that handle high volumes of traffic, as the memory consumption accelerates with increased request frequency, potentially leading to complete system crashes or restarts. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption to include potential system instability and resource contention issues that may affect other services running on the same host system. Organizations relying on MaraDNS for critical infrastructure services face substantial risk of service outages and potential data availability issues when this vulnerability is exploited.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2007-3114 should prioritize immediate patching of affected MaraDNS installations to versions 1.2.12.05 or 1.3.03 and later, which contain the necessary memory management fixes. System administrators should implement monitoring solutions to track memory consumption patterns on DNS servers and establish alerting mechanisms for unusual memory usage trends that may indicate exploitation attempts. Network-level protections such as rate limiting and connection throttling can help reduce the impact of potential attacks by limiting the number of requests that can be processed within specific time intervals. Additionally, implementing intrusion detection systems that monitor for unusual DNS query patterns and memory consumption behaviors can provide early warning capabilities. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-401 which specifically addresses improper resource management and memory leaks in software systems, while also mapping to ATT&CK technique T1499.1 which covers network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion. Organizations should also consider implementing redundant DNS infrastructure and failover mechanisms to maintain service availability during potential exploitation attempts, as well as conducting regular security assessments to identify and remediate similar memory management issues in other network services.