CVE-2008-1984 in Secure Content Manager
Summary
by MITRE
The eTrust Common Services (Transport) Daemon (eCSqdmn) in CA Secure Content Manager 8.0.28000.511 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash or CPU consumption) via a malformed packet to TCP port 1882.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/29/2024
The CVE-2008-1984 vulnerability affects the eTrust Common Services Transport Daemon component within CA Secure Content Manager version 8.0.28000.511 and earlier. This daemon operates on TCP port 1882 and serves as a critical transport mechanism for secure content management operations. The vulnerability represents a significant security flaw that can be exploited remotely without authentication, making it particularly dangerous in production environments where such services are exposed to network traffic.
The technical flaw manifests through improper input validation within the eCSqdmn daemon's packet processing logic. When malformed packets are sent to the designated TCP port 1882, the daemon fails to properly handle these invalid inputs, leading to system instability. The vulnerability can result in either immediate daemon crashes that terminate the service or sustained high cpu utilization that effectively renders the system unresponsive. This behavior aligns with CWE-129, Input Validation, and CWE-400, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, both of which are fundamental weaknesses in software security design.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for organizations relying on CA Secure Content Manager for content protection and management. The remote exploitation capability means that attackers can potentially disrupt critical business operations without requiring physical access or prior authentication credentials. The denial of service condition can persist until manual intervention occurs, including daemon restarts or system reboots, which may result in extended downtime and service degradation. The vulnerability also fits within ATT&CK technique T1499.004, Network Denial of Service, which specifically addresses attacks targeting network services to cause disruption.
Security professionals should note that this vulnerability demonstrates poor defensive programming practices in network service implementations. The lack of robust error handling and input sanitization creates an attack surface that can be easily exploited by automated scanning tools or malicious actors. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict access to port 1882, firewall rules to limit exposure, and application-level monitoring to detect anomalous packet patterns. Additionally, the vulnerability highlights the importance of regular security updates and patch management processes, as the issue was resolved in subsequent versions of the software through proper input validation implementations.
The broader implications of CVE-2008-1984 extend beyond immediate service disruption to encompass potential data integrity concerns and business continuity risks. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of affected software and implement comprehensive monitoring solutions to detect exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also underscores the critical need for defense-in-depth strategies that include network segmentation, intrusion detection systems, and regular security audits to prevent similar issues in other network services and applications.