CVE-2009-3749 in Personal Email Manager
Summary
by MITRE
The Web Administrator service (STEMWADM.EXE) in Websense Personal Email Manager 7.1 before Hotfix 4 and Email Security 7.1 before Hotfix 4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) by sending a HTTP GET request to TCP port 8181 and closing the socket before the service can send a response.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/06/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2009-3749 represents a classic denial of service flaw in the Web Administrator service component of Websense Personal Email Manager and Email Security products. This vulnerability specifically affects versions 7.1 and earlier, with the issue persisting until the release of Hotfix 4 for both product lines. The affected service process, named STEMWADM.EXE, operates on TCP port 8181 and serves as the administrative interface for managing email security policies and configurations. The flaw stems from the service's inadequate handling of incomplete HTTP requests, creating a condition where the system becomes vulnerable to malicious socket closure behavior that triggers application instability.
The technical mechanism behind this vulnerability involves the Web Administrator service's response handling logic when processing HTTP GET requests. When an attacker sends a legitimate HTTP GET request to port 8181 and immediately closes the socket connection before the service can complete its response transmission, the service encounters an unhandled state that leads to a crash. This behavior demonstrates a lack of proper error handling and connection state management within the application's network processing layer. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it requires minimal effort from an attacker to exploit, involving only a simple network interaction that can be automated. The flaw essentially creates a race condition where the service attempts to respond to a request that has already been terminated by the client, resulting in memory corruption or thread termination that ultimately brings the service down.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to organizations relying on Websense email security solutions, as it can be exploited remotely without authentication requirements. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromising email security infrastructure, since administrators would lose access to critical management interfaces during an attack. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes "Uncontrolled Resource Consumption" as a common weakness affecting software systems. Attackers could leverage this flaw to repeatedly crash the administrative service, leading to extended periods of reduced email security coverage and potential business disruption. The service crash would likely require manual intervention to restart, potentially creating windows of vulnerability during which email traffic might not be properly filtered or monitored.
The security implications of this vulnerability are amplified by the fact that it operates at the network level and requires no specialized privileges or credentials to exploit. This characteristic places it within the ATT&CK framework under the Tactic of "Execution" and "Persistence" as it can be used to disrupt system availability and potentially establish a foothold for more sophisticated attacks. Organizations should consider implementing network segmentation to isolate the administrative ports from external access, and deploy intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious traffic patterns targeting port 8181. The recommended mitigation strategy involves applying the vendor-provided hotfixes for versions 7.1 of both Personal Email Manager and Email Security products, which would address the improper handling of connection termination events. Additionally, implementing firewall rules to restrict access to port 8181 to trusted administrative networks only would provide an additional layer of defense against exploitation attempts.