CVE-2010-4551 in Lotus Notes Traveler
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Lotus Notes Traveler before 8.5.1.2 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and daemon crash) by omitting the Internet ID field in the person document, and then using an Apple device to (1) accept or (2) decline an invitation.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/08/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-4551 affects IBM Lotus Notes Traveler version 8.5.1.1 and earlier, representing a critical denial of service weakness that can be exploited by authenticated attackers. This flaw specifically targets the handling of person documents within the Lotus Notes Traveler system, where the application fails to properly validate the presence of required fields before processing requests. The vulnerability stems from a lack of proper input validation mechanisms that should ensure all mandatory fields are present in person documents before the system processes calendar invitation responses. This weakness creates a condition where the application's daemon process becomes unstable when encountering malformed person documents lacking the Internet ID field, ultimately leading to system crashes and service disruption.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through a specific sequence involving Apple devices that interact with the Lotus Notes Traveler calendar system. When an authenticated user omits the Internet ID field from a person document and subsequently uses an Apple device to either accept or decline calendar invitations, the system's processing logic encounters a NULL pointer dereference error. This occurs because the application attempts to access memory locations that have not been properly initialized or allocated, causing the daemon process to terminate unexpectedly. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-476 as a NULL pointer dereference, which represents a common software flaw where a program attempts to access a memory location through a pointer that has not been properly initialized. The daemon crash resulting from this condition effectively renders the Lotus Notes Traveler service unavailable to legitimate users, creating a denial of service scenario that impacts business continuity and productivity.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption as it affects the reliability and availability of calendar management services within enterprise environments that depend on IBM Lotus Notes Traveler. Organizations utilizing this system for scheduling and collaboration may experience significant operational downtime when attackers exploit this weakness, particularly in environments where Apple devices are commonly used for calendar management. The vulnerability's authentication requirement means that only authorized users can exploit it, but this does not mitigate the potential damage since legitimate users may inadvertently trigger the condition or malicious insiders could leverage their access privileges to cause service disruption. From an attack perspective, this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 which involves network denial of service attacks, and represents a form of system resource exhaustion through process termination rather than memory consumption.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing proper input validation and error handling within the Lotus Notes Traveler system. Organizations should immediately upgrade to IBM Lotus Notes Traveler version 8.5.1.2 or later, which contains the necessary patches to address this NULL pointer dereference issue. Additionally, system administrators should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual patterns of calendar invitation processing that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of robust field validation in enterprise collaboration systems, particularly when dealing with user profile data that forms the foundation for calendar and scheduling operations. Security teams should also consider implementing access controls and monitoring around person document modifications to prevent unauthorized or malformed data from being introduced into the system. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other enterprise applications that may be susceptible to similar NULL pointer dereference conditions.