CVE-2011-1314 in WebSphere Application Server
Summary
by MITRE
The Service Integration Bus (SIB) messaging engine in IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) before 7.0.0.15 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon hang) by performing close operations via network connections to a queue manager.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/19/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-1314 resides within the Service Integration Bus messaging engine of IBM WebSphere Application Server, specifically affecting versions prior to 7.0.0.15. This flaw represents a significant security concern as it enables remote attackers to execute a denial of service attack against the targeted system. The Service Integration Bus serves as a critical messaging infrastructure component within WebSphere Application Server, facilitating communication between various enterprise applications and services through queue management and message routing capabilities. The vulnerability manifests when the system processes close operations performed over network connections to queue managers, creating a condition that can lead to daemon hanging and complete service disruption.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and improper handling of network connection termination sequences within the SIB messaging engine. When remote attackers establish network connections to queue managers and subsequently perform close operations, the system fails to properly process these termination requests, resulting in the daemon becoming unresponsive and effectively hanging. This behavior constitutes a classic denial of service condition where legitimate system resources become unavailable to authorized users. The flaw operates at the protocol level where the messaging engine does not adequately validate or handle the sequence of operations associated with closing queue manager connections, allowing malicious actors to exploit this gap in the system's defensive mechanisms.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability can severely compromise the availability and reliability of enterprise applications relying on IBM WebSphere Application Server for messaging services. The daemon hanging condition can result in complete service interruption, affecting business-critical applications that depend on message queuing for data synchronization, transaction processing, and inter-application communication. Organizations utilizing WebSphere Application Server in production environments face significant risk of service degradation or complete system outages when this vulnerability is exploited. The remote nature of the attack means that adversaries can initiate the denial of service condition from external network locations without requiring local system access or authentication credentials, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous and easy to exploit.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which addresses "Uncontrolled Resource Consumption" and specifically relates to denial of service conditions caused by improper handling of resource management operations. Additionally, this flaw can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers "Endpoint Denial of Service" through resource consumption, demonstrating how attackers can leverage messaging infrastructure weaknesses to compromise system availability. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patches for WebSphere Application Server version 7.0.0.15 and higher, which address the improper handling of close operations in the SIB messaging engine. Network-level controls such as firewall rules to restrict unnecessary access to queue manager ports and implementing connection monitoring can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments of messaging infrastructure components and continuous monitoring of system logs for unusual connection patterns or daemon behavior should be established as part of comprehensive security operations. The vulnerability underscores the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches for enterprise messaging systems and demonstrates how seemingly minor implementation flaws in core infrastructure components can result in significant availability impacts across entire enterprise environments.