CVE-2008-3149 in FirePass 1200
Summary
by MITRE
The SNMP daemon in the F5 FirePass 1200 6.0.2 hotfix 3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) by walking the hrSWInstalled OID branch in HOST-RESOURCES-MIB.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/20/2017
The vulnerability described in CVE-2008-3149 represents a critical denial of service weakness within the F5 FirePass 1200 6.0.2 hotfix 3 system. This issue affects the SNMP daemon that operates as part of the FirePass authentication and access management platform, which is widely deployed in enterprise environments for secure remote access solutions. The vulnerability specifically targets the handling of SNMP requests related to the HOST-RESOURCES-MIB, particularly when accessing the hrSWInstalled OID branch. This daemon crash occurs when remote attackers exploit the insufficient input validation and error handling mechanisms within the SNMP implementation.
The technical flaw manifests when an attacker performs a remote SNMP walk operation against the hrSWInstalled OID branch within the HOST-RESOURCES-MIB. The FirePass 1200 system fails to properly validate or sanitize the incoming SNMP requests, leading to a condition where the daemon becomes unstable and subsequently crashes. This vulnerability falls under the category of improper input validation as defined by CWE-20, where the system does not adequately check or sanitize data received from external sources. The issue is particularly concerning because it can be exploited remotely without requiring authentication, making it accessible to any attacker with network connectivity to the device's SNMP port.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can severely compromise the availability of critical network access services. Organizations relying on F5 FirePass 1200 appliances for secure remote access may experience unauthorized disruption of their authentication infrastructure, potentially affecting thousands of users who depend on these systems for network connectivity. The daemon crash creates a window of service unavailability that can persist until manual intervention or automatic restart mechanisms are triggered, potentially lasting several minutes or hours depending on system configuration. This type of vulnerability directly aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks, where adversaries target network infrastructure components to disrupt services.
Security professionals should note that this vulnerability represents a fundamental flaw in the SNMP implementation that could potentially serve as a stepping stone for more sophisticated attacks. The lack of proper error handling and input validation creates opportunities for attackers to potentially escalate their privileges or gain deeper system access. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict SNMP access, firewall rules to limit SNMP traffic to trusted sources, and monitoring of SNMP traffic for suspicious walk operations. Additionally, the vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper software patch management and vendor security advisories, as this issue was resolved through the hotfix 3 release, highlighting the necessity of maintaining up-to-date security patches for critical infrastructure components. The vulnerability also underscores the need for comprehensive security testing of network management protocols and the implementation of robust input validation mechanisms to prevent similar issues in other network infrastructure components.