CVE-2009-3899 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Memory leak in the Sockets Direct Protocol (SDP) driver in Sun Solaris 10, and OpenSolaris snv_57 through snv_94, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/10/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2009-3899 represents a critical memory leak flaw within the Sockets Direct Protocol driver implementation in Sun Solaris operating systems. This issue affects Solaris 10 and various OpenSolaris builds ranging from snv_57 through snv_94, creating a persistent threat that can be exploited remotely to consume system memory resources. The Sockets Direct Protocol serves as a high-performance communication mechanism within the Solaris networking stack, enabling direct socket operations between user space and kernel space components. The flaw manifests as an insufficient memory management mechanism within the SDP driver that fails to properly release allocated memory resources during normal operation or error conditions. This memory leak vulnerability operates at the kernel level within the networking subsystem, specifically targeting the memory allocation and deallocation routines used by the SDP protocol implementation. The root cause of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-401, which categorizes improper resource management issues where allocated resources are not properly released, leading to resource exhaustion conditions.
The operational impact of this memory leak vulnerability extends beyond simple resource consumption to potentially destabilize entire system operations. Remote attackers can exploit this weakness by sending carefully crafted network packets or establishing specific socket connections that trigger the flawed memory management behavior within the SDP driver. As the memory leak accumulates over time, system performance degrades significantly, eventually leading to complete system unresponsiveness or crash conditions. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers need not have physical access to the target system, allowing for widespread exploitation across networked environments. This type of denial of service attack specifically targets the system's memory management subsystem, causing progressive memory consumption that can ultimately exhaust available system resources and render the affected server or workstation unusable.
Security professionals should consider this vulnerability in relation to the broader ATT&CK framework, particularly under the adversary tactics of resource exhaustion and denial of service. The vulnerability demonstrates how kernel-level memory management flaws can be leveraged to create persistent system instability, making it a significant concern for enterprise network security. Organizations utilizing affected Solaris versions should implement immediate mitigation strategies including applying the relevant Oracle security patches, monitoring system memory usage patterns for unusual consumption trends, and implementing network segmentation to limit potential attack vectors. System administrators should also consider disabling unnecessary SDP protocol usage where possible and establish automated monitoring for memory consumption anomalies that could indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the critical importance of proper resource management in kernel space components and underscores the need for comprehensive testing of memory allocation routines within operating system drivers to prevent similar issues from arising in future implementations.