CVE-2009-5060 in Lotus Quickr
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in IBM Lotus Quickr 8.1 before 8.1.0.11 services for Lotus Domino might allow remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) by accessing an entry in a calendar, aka SPR MZHA7SEBJX.
Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/10/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2009-5060 affects IBM Lotus Quickr 8.1 before version 8.1.0.11 when operating in conjunction with Lotus Domino services. This represents a significant security flaw that impacts the availability and stability of collaborative applications within enterprise environments. The vulnerability specifically manifests when authenticated users interact with calendar entries, creating a potential vector for denial of service attacks that could disrupt business operations and compromise system integrity.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from improper handling of calendar entry data within the Lotus Quickr service components. When an authenticated user accesses certain calendar entries, the system fails to properly validate or process the incoming data, leading to a daemon crash that results in complete service disruption. This type of vulnerability typically indicates a lack of proper input sanitization and error handling mechanisms within the application's processing pipeline, allowing malformed or unexpected data to trigger critical system failures.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a substantial risk to organizations relying on Lotus Quickr for collaboration and calendar management services. The fact that authentication is required limits the attack surface compared to unauthenticated vulnerabilities, but it still represents a serious threat since legitimate users could potentially exploit this weakness to disrupt services. The daemon crash creates a denial of service condition that could affect multiple users simultaneously, particularly in environments where calendar integration is critical for business operations and workflow management.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which addresses stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-122, which covers heap-based buffer overflow scenarios, though the specific mechanism may involve memory corruption during data processing. From an attack framework perspective, this vulnerability would be categorized under the ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which involves network denial of service attacks, specifically targeting application availability. Organizations should implement immediate patch management procedures to address this vulnerability and establish monitoring protocols to detect potential exploitation attempts.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass broader operational risks including productivity losses, potential data integrity concerns, and increased administrative overhead for system recovery and maintenance. Given that Lotus Quickr integrates with Domino services, the attack surface may extend to other interconnected applications and services within the enterprise infrastructure. Security teams should conduct thorough assessments of their Lotus Quickr deployments to identify affected systems and implement comprehensive monitoring solutions to detect anomalous access patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and implementing robust application security controls to prevent similar issues in the future.
Organizations should prioritize immediate deployment of IBM's security patches for Lotus Quickr 8.1, specifically version 8.1.0.11 or later, to remediate this vulnerability. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and access controls can help limit the potential impact of such attacks. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other collaborative applications and services within the enterprise environment. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing to ensure that the patch does not introduce compatibility issues with existing business applications and workflows.