CVE-2007-5711 in World in Conflict
Summary
by MITRE
Massive Entertainment World in Conflict 1.001 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (failed assertion and daemon crash) via a large packet to TCP or UDP port 48000.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/30/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-5711 affects Massive Entertainment's World in Conflict game version 1.001 and earlier, presenting a significant denial of service risk that can be exploited remotely. This issue manifests through malformed network traffic directed at the game's network services, specifically targeting TCP or UDP port 48000 which serves as the primary communication endpoint for the game's multiplayer functionality. The vulnerability represents a classic buffer overflow condition where the game daemon fails to properly validate incoming packet sizes, leading to assertion failures that ultimately result in complete service termination.
The technical flaw resides in the network packet processing logic within the game's server daemon implementation, where insufficient input validation allows attackers to craft specially crafted packets that exceed expected buffer boundaries. When the daemon encounters these oversized packets, it triggers internal assertion checks that are designed to detect programming errors or invalid states, but these checks are not properly handled in production environments. This leads to the daemon crashing and terminating its network services, effectively rendering the game server unavailable to legitimate players. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and requires no authentication or prior access to the system, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited from any remote location with network connectivity to the target port.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability directly affects the availability of multiplayer gaming services and can be leveraged by malicious actors to disrupt gaming sessions, prevent new player connections, or cause extended downtime for game servers. The denial of service condition is particularly severe because it affects the core functionality of the game's online capabilities, which are essential for the multiplayer experience. Network administrators and game server operators face significant challenges in maintaining service availability when such vulnerabilities exist, as they must either implement immediate patches or apply workarounds that may impact gameplay performance. The vulnerability also demonstrates poor defensive programming practices and highlights the importance of implementing proper input sanitization and error handling in network services.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-122, which describes buffer overflow conditions in heap-based memory management, and represents a classic example of improper input validation that can lead to service disruption. From an attack framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks, and T1595.001, which involves reconnaissance through network scanning to identify vulnerable services. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict access to port 48000, firewall rules to limit packet size, and application-level rate limiting to prevent exploitation. The most effective long-term solution involves applying the vendor-provided security patches or upgrading to newer versions of the game that address these input validation issues. Additionally, monitoring network traffic for unusually large packets on the affected port can help detect exploitation attempts and provide early warning of potential attacks.