CVE-2010-0931 in Server
Summary
by MITRE
The Perforce service (p4s.exe) in Perforce Server 2008.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via crafted data, possibly involving a large sndbuf value.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/01/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-0931 affects the Perforce Server 2008.1 implementation specifically targeting the Perforce service executable known as p4s.exe. This represents a critical denial of service weakness that enables remote attackers to disrupt the availability of the Perforce version control system. The flaw manifests when the service processes crafted data packets that contain unusually large sndbuf values, which are socket buffer size parameters used in network communications. This vulnerability resides within the network protocol handling layer of the Perforce server implementation and demonstrates a classic buffer overflow or parameter validation failure that can lead to daemon termination.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability involves sending specially crafted network requests to the Perforce service that contain malformed sndbuf parameters exceeding normal operational limits. When the p4s.exe process attempts to process these invalid buffer size specifications, it fails to properly validate the input data, leading to memory corruption or resource exhaustion that ultimately causes the service daemon to crash and terminate unexpectedly. This behavior aligns with CWE-122, which describes buffer overflow conditions where insufficient bounds checking allows attackers to write beyond allocated memory regions. The vulnerability demonstrates a lack of proper input sanitization and validation within the network protocol stack, particularly in how the service handles socket buffer configuration parameters.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risk to organizations relying on Perforce for version control and collaborative software development. The remote nature of the attack means that unauthorized users can potentially disrupt critical development workflows without requiring local access or authentication credentials. The service daemon crash results in immediate unavailability of the Perforce server, affecting all users who depend on the system for source code management, file locking, and collaborative development activities. This type of denial of service attack can have cascading effects on development teams, potentially delaying releases, blocking code integration, and disrupting continuous integration pipelines that depend on stable version control infrastructure.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided patches and updates that address the buffer handling and input validation issues within the Perforce Server 2008.1 implementation. Network segmentation and access controls should be enforced to limit exposure of the Perforce service to trusted networks only, while monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual network traffic patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of input validation and proper resource management in network services, as outlined in ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service. Additionally, implementing rate limiting and connection throttling mechanisms can help reduce the impact of potential exploitation attempts while maintaining service availability for legitimate users.