CVE-2008-6766 in Shop
Summary
by MITRE
cart_save.php in ViArt Shop (aka Shopping Cart) 3.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (excessive shopping carts) via a flood of requests.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/06/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-6766 affects ViArt Shop version 3.5, specifically within the cart_save.php component of the shopping cart system. This flaw represents a classic denial of service attack vector that exploits the application's handling of shopping cart persistence mechanisms. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and request rate limiting within the cart saving functionality, which allows malicious actors to flood the system with excessive cart creation requests. The attack exploits the fundamental architecture of the e-commerce platform's session management and cart persistence logic, where each request to save a cart item triggers database operations that consume system resources without adequate rate limiting or request throttling mechanisms. This vulnerability falls under the category of resource exhaustion attacks and aligns with CWE-400, which addresses unchecked resource consumption in software systems.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability demonstrates how improper request handling can lead to system degradation. When attackers repeatedly submit cart save requests, the application creates multiple cart entries in the database without sufficient validation or rate limiting controls. Each request consumes memory, CPU cycles, and database resources as the system processes cart data, maintains session state, and updates inventory tracking mechanisms. The lack of proper request rate limiting allows an attacker to overwhelm the system's capacity to handle legitimate user requests, effectively creating a denial of service condition where legitimate customers cannot access the shopping cart functionality or complete purchases. This vulnerability operates at the application layer and can be classified under ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service interruption to potentially compromise the entire e-commerce platform's availability and performance. When exploited, the vulnerability can cause cascading failures throughout the application stack, as database connections become exhausted and memory consumption spikes. The system may experience degraded performance for all users, with legitimate transactions taking longer to process or failing entirely. This type of attack can be particularly damaging for e-commerce sites during peak traffic periods, as the denial of service can result in lost sales and customer frustration. The vulnerability also creates opportunities for additional attacks, as the system's degraded state may expose other weaknesses or create timing windows for exploitation of related vulnerabilities. Organizations using affected versions of ViArt Shop must implement immediate mitigations to prevent exploitation.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2008-6766 should focus on implementing robust request rate limiting and input validation mechanisms within the cart_save.php component. The recommended approach includes establishing per-session request limits, implementing IP-based rate limiting, and adding proper validation to cart data before processing. Security controls should be designed to detect and block anomalous request patterns that exceed normal usage thresholds. Organizations should also implement database query optimization to reduce the resource consumption of cart saving operations and consider implementing circuit breaker patterns to prevent cascading failures. The fix should be implemented at the application level by modifying the cart_save.php script to include proper rate limiting logic and input sanitization. Additionally, monitoring and alerting should be configured to detect unusual traffic patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, enabling rapid response to potential attacks. System administrators should also ensure that all components of the ViArt Shop platform are updated to the latest security patches available from the vendor to prevent exploitation of similar vulnerabilities in other components.