CVE-2007-4158 in Rendezvous
Summary
by MITRE
Memory leak in TIBCO Rendezvous (RV) daemon (rvd) 7.5.2, 7.5.3 and 7.5.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a packet with a length field of zero, a different vulnerability than CVE-2006-2830.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/01/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-4158 represents a critical memory management flaw in TIBCO Rendezvous daemon software versions 7.5.2 through 7.5.4. This issue specifically targets the rvd process responsible for message routing and delivery within TIBCO's middleware infrastructure. The vulnerability manifests as a memory leak condition that occurs when the daemon receives malformed network packets containing a zero-length field, creating a persistent resource exhaustion scenario that can severely impact system availability and performance. The flaw operates at the protocol level where the daemon fails to properly handle edge cases in packet processing, particularly when encountering malformed data structures that should be rejected or gracefully handled rather than causing memory allocation without subsequent deallocation.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the TIBCO Rendezvous daemon's packet parsing routines. When a remote attacker sends a specially crafted packet with a length field set to zero, the daemon's processing logic attempts to allocate memory resources to handle this malformed data without proper bounds checking or error handling mechanisms. This results in a progressive memory consumption pattern where each malicious packet causes the daemon to allocate additional memory that is never properly freed, leading to a gradual degradation of system resources. The vulnerability operates independently from CVE-2006-2830, indicating that while both issues involve packet handling, they target different code paths and memory management scenarios within the software architecture. The root cause aligns with CWE-401, which describes improper handling of memory allocation failures and resource leaks in software systems.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a significant risk for organizations relying on TIBCO Rendezvous for mission-critical messaging infrastructure. The memory leak can accumulate over time, eventually consuming all available system memory and causing the daemon process to crash or become unresponsive. This leads to complete denial of service for all applications dependent on the affected messaging infrastructure, potentially disrupting business operations across multiple systems. The remote nature of the attack means that adversaries can exploit this vulnerability from outside the network perimeter without requiring authentication or privileged access, making it particularly dangerous for organizations with exposed messaging services. Network monitoring systems may initially misinterpret the memory consumption patterns as normal operational behavior, delaying detection and response times.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict access to TIBCO Rendezvous services, deploying intrusion detection systems to monitor for anomalous packet patterns, and applying vendor patches once available. The recommended approach involves configuring firewalls to filter out packets with zero-length fields and implementing memory monitoring alerts to detect unusual resource consumption patterns. Additionally, system administrators should consider implementing process restart procedures for the rvd daemon to mitigate the cumulative effects of memory leaks, though this provides only temporary relief. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of robust input validation and memory management practices in middleware systems, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1499.001 which covers network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion. Organizations should also review their incident response procedures to ensure rapid detection and remediation of similar memory management vulnerabilities that could affect other middleware components in their infrastructure.