CVE-2008-7094 in Affinium Campaign
Summary
by MITRE
Campaign/CampaignListener in the listener server in Unica Affinium Campaign 7.2.1.0.55 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (server crash) via a crafted length field that triggers (1) connection exhaustion or (2) memory allocation failure.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/17/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-7094 resides within the Unica Affinium Campaign 7.2.1.0.55 listener server implementation, specifically affecting the Campaign/CampaignListener component. This flaw represents a critical security weakness that enables remote attackers to execute denial of service attacks against the targeted system. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation mechanisms within the server's handling of connection requests and memory allocation processes. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious length fields that manipulate the server's internal processing logic, ultimately leading to system instability and complete service disruption.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability operates through two distinct attack vectors that both result in server compromise. The first vector involves connection exhaustion where crafted length fields cause the server to allocate excessive connection resources without proper cleanup or limits, eventually depleting available connection handles and preventing legitimate users from establishing valid sessions. The second vector targets memory allocation failure conditions where malformed length values trigger improper memory management operations, leading to heap corruption or allocation failures that cause the server process to crash and terminate unexpectedly. Both attack paths leverage the server's insufficient validation of incoming data structures, particularly focusing on how the system interprets and processes length fields within communication protocols.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to organizations relying on Unica Affinium Campaign 7.2.1.0.55 for marketing automation and customer engagement activities. The denial of service conditions can result in complete service outages that disrupt marketing campaigns, customer communications, and business operations. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers can initiate attacks from external networks without requiring local system access or authentication credentials. This characteristic makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by anyone with network access to the affected server, potentially causing widespread disruption to marketing automation workflows and customer interaction systems that depend on the campaign server's availability.
Organizations should implement multiple layers of defensive measures to protect against this vulnerability. Immediate remediation efforts should focus on applying available vendor patches or updates that address the input validation flaws in the Campaign/CampaignListener component. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit exposure of the affected server to untrusted networks, while monitoring systems should be deployed to detect anomalous connection patterns or memory allocation behaviors that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, implementing rate limiting and connection throttling mechanisms can help mitigate the impact of connection exhaustion attacks by limiting the number of concurrent connections or requests that can be processed within specific time intervals. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-129, which addresses improper validation of length fields, and represents a classic example of how insufficient input validation can lead to resource exhaustion and system instability. From an attacker perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks, and demonstrates how remote exploitation can be achieved through manipulation of protocol implementation details.