CVE-2008-7127 in VisiBroker
Summary
by MITRE
osagent.exe in Borland VisiBroker Smart Agent 08.00.00.C1.03 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a crafted packet with a large string length value to UDP port 14000, which triggers a memory allocation failure that is not properly handled.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/18/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2008-7127 represents a critical denial of service flaw within Borland VisiBroker Smart Agent software version 08.00.00.C1.03 and earlier. This issue affects the osagent.exe component which operates on UDP port 14000, making it accessible to remote attackers without authentication. The flaw stems from inadequate input validation mechanisms that fail to properly handle malformed packet data containing excessively large string length values. When such malicious packets are received, the system attempts to allocate memory based on the inflated string length parameter, leading to memory allocation failures that are not gracefully managed by the application's error handling routines.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability demonstrates a classic buffer overflow condition that has been classified under CWE-122 as "Heap-based Buffer Overflow" or more specifically as a memory allocation failure scenario. The flaw occurs at the protocol parsing layer where the application does not validate the legitimacy of string length indicators before attempting to allocate memory resources. This type of vulnerability falls within the ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for "Network Denial of Service" and represents a primitive attack vector that leverages malformed network traffic to disrupt service availability. The application's failure to implement proper bounds checking and memory management protocols creates an exploitable condition where attackers can force the agent process to crash and terminate unexpectedly.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption as it can be exploited by remote unauthenticated attackers to systematically crash the VisiBroker Smart Agent service. This creates a persistent availability issue that affects monitoring and management capabilities of systems relying on the Borland VisiBroker infrastructure. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal technical expertise since it only necessitates sending a crafted UDP packet to the designated port, making it particularly dangerous in production environments where such agents are deployed. Organizations using this software may experience service interruptions, loss of monitoring data, and potential cascading failures in distributed systems that depend on the agent's functionality for communication and health monitoring.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate software updates and patches from Borland, as the vendor would have addressed the memory allocation handling issues in subsequent releases. Network-level defenses including firewall rules to block UDP traffic on port 14000 can provide temporary protection while patches are deployed. Additionally, implementing intrusion detection systems that monitor for unusual UDP packet patterns targeting this specific port may help detect exploitation attempts. Organizations should also consider network segmentation to isolate systems running the affected software and implement proper input validation at network boundaries. The vulnerability highlights the importance of robust error handling and memory management practices in distributed systems, aligning with security standards that emphasize defensive programming techniques to prevent resource exhaustion attacks. Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar issues in other legacy software components that may be running in enterprise environments.