CVE-2008-0548 in Steamcast
Summary
by MITRE
Steamcast 0.9.75 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via a large integer in the Content-Length HTTP header, which triggers a NULL dereference when malloc fails.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/15/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-0548 affects Steamcast versions 0.9.75 and earlier, representing a critical denial of service flaw that can be exploited by remote attackers to crash the application daemon. This issue stems from inadequate input validation within the HTTP header processing mechanism, specifically targeting the Content-Length field that is commonly used in web communications to indicate the size of the message body. The flaw manifests when an attacker submits a malformed Content-Length header containing an excessively large integer value that exceeds the system's memory allocation capabilities.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through a NULL pointer dereference condition that arises when the malloc function fails to allocate sufficient memory for the requested buffer size. When Steamcast processes the oversized Content-Length value, it attempts to allocate memory based on this malformed integer, which typically results in a NULL return from malloc. Subsequent code execution attempts to dereference this NULL pointer, leading to an immediate crash of the daemon process. This behavior aligns with CWE-476, which describes NULL pointer dereference vulnerabilities, and represents a classic example of improper memory management that can be leveraged for denial of service attacks.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to systems relying on Steamcast for media streaming services, as it allows remote unauthenticated attackers to disrupt service availability without requiring any privileged access or specialized tools. The daemon crash results in complete service interruption for all connected clients, potentially affecting legitimate users and causing business disruption. The attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires minimal effort from attackers, who only need to send a specially crafted HTTP request with an oversized Content-Length header. This vulnerability directly maps to attack techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the T1499 category for network denial of service, and specifically targets the T1070.004 sub-technique related to application layer denial of service.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can be exploited in combination with other attack vectors to create more sophisticated denial of service scenarios. Organizations utilizing Steamcast should consider implementing network-level mitigations such as HTTP header filtering and rate limiting to prevent exploitation attempts. Additionally, the vulnerability highlights the importance of proper error handling and input validation in network services, particularly when dealing with integer values that could potentially cause memory allocation failures. The recommended remediation involves upgrading to a patched version of Steamcast that implements proper bounds checking and error handling for Content-Length header values, along with comprehensive input validation that prevents malformed integers from causing memory allocation failures. System administrators should also consider implementing monitoring solutions to detect unusual HTTP header patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, and establish incident response procedures to quickly address any successful attacks that may occur.