CVE-2009-5136 in Enterprise Mrg
Summary
by MITRE
The policy definition evaluator in Condor before 7.4.2 does not properly handle attributes in a WANT_SUSPEND policy that evaluate to an UNDEFINED state, which allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (condor_startd exit) via a crafted job.
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/08/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2009-5136 resides within the Condor distributed computing system's policy definition evaluator component, specifically affecting versions prior to 7.4.2. This flaw represents a critical denial of service vulnerability that can be exploited by remotely authenticated users to crash the condor_startd daemon, thereby disrupting the distributed computing environment. The issue manifests when the system processes policy definitions that contain attributes evaluating to an UNDEFINED state within WANT_SUSPEND policy contexts, creating a condition where the evaluator fails to properly handle such scenarios and subsequently terminates the daemon process.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and error handling within Condor's policy evaluation engine. When a job is submitted with specific attributes that evaluate to UNDEFINED within the WANT_SUSPEND policy definition, the evaluator encounters a state where it cannot properly process or handle the undefined attribute values. This failure condition triggers an abrupt termination of the condor_startd process, effectively removing the compute node from the distributed system and causing service disruption. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be exploited by authenticated users who have the ability to submit jobs to the Condor system, making it a significant threat to the availability of distributed computing resources.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can severely compromise the reliability and availability of distributed computing clusters that depend on Condor for job scheduling and resource management. When the condor_startd daemon exits unexpectedly, it leaves the associated compute resources unavailable to the cluster, potentially causing job failures, resource starvation, and cascading effects throughout the distributed system. The vulnerability affects the core functionality of Condor's resource management capabilities, as it directly targets the daemon responsible for starting and managing compute resources. This creates a situation where legitimate users may experience service degradation or complete unavailability of computing resources, while malicious actors can deliberately exploit this weakness to cause system instability and resource exhaustion.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2009-5136 primarily involve upgrading to Condor version 7.4.2 or later, which includes proper handling of undefined attributes within policy definitions. System administrators should also implement strict job submission policies and attribute validation mechanisms to prevent potentially malicious job submissions from reaching the vulnerable evaluator. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-248, which addresses "Uncaught Exception" conditions in software systems, and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for "Endpoint Denial of Service" as it specifically targets the availability of endpoint resources. Organizations should also consider implementing monitoring and alerting mechanisms to detect unusual condor_startd process terminations and establish incident response procedures to quickly address potential exploitation attempts. Additionally, network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit the number of authenticated users who can submit jobs to the Condor system, reducing the attack surface for this particular vulnerability.