CVE-2011-1393 in Lotus Domino
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the authentication functionality in the server in IBM Lotus Domino 8.x before 8.5.2 FP4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via a crafted Notes RPC packet.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/19/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-1393 represents a critical weakness in IBM Lotus Domino server authentication mechanisms that affects versions 8.x prior to 8.5.2 Fix Pack 4. This issue resides within the server's handling of Notes Remote Procedure Call (RPC) packets, specifically targeting the authentication functionality that governs how the server processes incoming network requests from clients. The flaw enables malicious actors to exploit a weakness in the server's packet processing logic, potentially leading to unauthorized disruption of service. The vulnerability's classification as unspecified indicates that the exact technical mechanism behind the flaw was not fully detailed in the initial reporting, but the impact on system availability and stability was clearly demonstrated through the potential for daemon crashes.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when remote attackers craft specially formatted Notes RPC packets that trigger an abnormal termination of the Domino server daemon process. This type of attack falls under the category of denial of service attacks where the attacker leverages a flaw in the server's input validation or processing logic to cause the system to crash or become unresponsive. The vulnerability specifically targets the authentication subsystem, which suggests that the flaw may involve improper handling of authentication tokens, session management, or credential validation routines within the RPC processing pipeline. The weakness likely stems from inadequate bounds checking or memory management within the server's RPC handler, allowing malformed input to cause memory corruption or execution flow disruption that ultimately results in the daemon crashing.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to organizations relying on IBM Lotus Domino for email and collaboration services. The potential for remote attackers to cause daemon crashes means that legitimate users could experience service interruptions, email delivery failures, and disruption of business operations. The impact extends beyond simple availability issues as the daemon crash may also lead to data loss or corruption if the server terminates unexpectedly during critical operations. Organizations with high availability requirements or those operating in regulated environments face particular risk since such disruptions could violate service level agreements or compliance requirements. The remote nature of the attack means that adversaries can exploit this vulnerability from anywhere on the network without requiring local access or authentication credentials, making it particularly dangerous for systems exposed to the internet or untrusted networks.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which addresses buffer overflow conditions in memory management, and potentially relates to CWE-122, concerning overflow of fixed buffers. From an attacker's perspective, this weakness maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which involves the exploitation of service interruption to deny access to systems or resources. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided fix pack 8.5.2 FP4, which contains the necessary patches to address the authentication flaw. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit exposure of Domino servers to untrusted networks. Additionally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual daemon crash patterns or authentication-related anomalies that might indicate exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other components of the email infrastructure, as this vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches for collaboration platforms. The incident also highlights the need for robust input validation and error handling in server applications, particularly those handling remote procedure calls and authentication protocols.