CVE-2008-0495 in Hardware Management Console
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Pegasus CIM Server in IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC) 7 R3.2.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/02/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-0495 resides within the Pegasus CIM Server component of IBM Hardware Management Console version 7 R3.2.0, representing a critical security weakness that enables remote attackers to execute denial of service attacks against affected systems. This issue falls under the broader category of unspecified vulnerabilities, which often indicate complex or poorly documented security flaws that can manifest through multiple attack vectors. The Pegasus CIM Server serves as a core management component responsible for providing Common Information Model services that facilitate system monitoring and management operations within IBM hardware environments. The vulnerability's classification as remote indicates that attackers can exploit this weakness without requiring physical access or local system credentials, making it particularly dangerous in networked environments where unauthorized access is a primary concern.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation or error handling mechanisms within the CIM Server implementation that processes incoming requests from remote clients. When exploited, these weaknesses allow attackers to craft malicious requests that cause the server to crash or become unresponsive, effectively disrupting the management capabilities of the affected hardware systems. The unspecified vectors suggest that multiple attack paths may exist, potentially including malformed CIM requests, excessive resource consumption, or manipulation of server state information that leads to system instability. This type of vulnerability typically manifests as improper exception handling or memory management issues that cause the service to terminate unexpectedly or enter an infinite loop, resulting in the denial of service condition that impacts legitimate system management operations. From a cybersecurity perspective, this represents a classic example of a resource exhaustion or service disruption attack pattern that can severely impact operational continuity and system availability.
The operational impact of CVE-2008-0495 extends beyond simple service interruption to potentially compromise the integrity of hardware management operations within IBM environments. Organizations utilizing IBM Hardware Management Console for critical infrastructure monitoring may experience significant operational disruption when this vulnerability is exploited, as the affected CIM Server becomes unavailable for legitimate management tasks. This can lead to extended downtime for system administrators who rely on the console for remote monitoring and maintenance activities, potentially affecting multiple systems simultaneously if the vulnerability affects the primary management server. The vulnerability's presence in version 7 R3.2.0 indicates that it likely existed in multiple iterations of the software, making it a persistent threat that organizations needed to address through patching or workaround implementations. The denial of service condition can be particularly damaging in enterprise environments where hardware management systems are integral to maintaining operational continuity and where unauthorized disruption of management services can lead to cascading failures in system monitoring and response capabilities.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying available patches from IBM that address the specific vulnerability in the Pegasus CIM Server implementation, while also establishing network segmentation strategies to limit exposure of the affected management services to untrusted networks. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks and CWE-129 for improper input validation issues that can lead to service disruption. Additionally, implementing intrusion detection systems to monitor for anomalous CIM requests and establishing robust monitoring protocols for management service availability can help detect exploitation attempts. Organizations should also consider implementing access controls and authentication mechanisms that limit the attack surface for remote exploitation, particularly in environments where the HMC management services are exposed to external networks. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in related management components and ensure comprehensive protection against similar attack vectors that could leverage the same underlying architectural flaws.