CVE-2011-1850 in Intelligent Management Center
Summary
by MITRE
Stack-based buffer overflow in the logging functionality in dbman.exe in HP Intelligent Management Center (IMC) 5.0 before E0101L02 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors related to a received action.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/07/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-1850 represents a critical stack-based buffer overflow flaw within the logging subsystem of HP Intelligent Management Center version 5.0 prior to E0101L02. This issue resides in the dbman.exe component which serves as a core database management module within the IMC platform. The vulnerability specifically manifests when the system processes incoming action-related data through its logging functionality, creating an exploitable condition that can be leveraged by remote attackers to gain unauthorized code execution privileges.
The technical implementation of this buffer overflow stems from inadequate input validation within the logging mechanism of dbman.exe. When the system receives action-related data from remote sources, the application fails to properly bounds-check the incoming data before copying it into fixed-size stack buffers. This fundamental flaw allows attackers to overflow the allocated buffer space and overwrite adjacent memory locations including return addresses and control data. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and requires no authentication to exploit, making it particularly dangerous as it can be triggered through network-based communication channels.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe risk to organizations utilizing HP IMC 5.0 systems as it enables remote code execution without requiring any prior authentication or privileged access. Attackers can craft malicious action-related packets that when processed by the vulnerable logging functionality will trigger the buffer overflow condition. Successful exploitation could result in complete system compromise, allowing threat actors to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the dbman.exe process. This capability undermines the integrity and confidentiality of the entire IMC platform, potentially exposing sensitive network management data and enabling further lateral movement within the network infrastructure.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121 Stack-based Buffer Overflow, which classifies this issue under improper input validation and memory management errors. From an attack framework perspective, this weakness maps to multiple ATT&CK techniques including T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter for code execution and T1078 Valid Accounts for potential privilege escalation. Organizations should immediately implement mitigation strategies including applying the vendor-provided security patches, implementing network segmentation to restrict access to IMC systems, and monitoring for suspicious network traffic patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, network-based intrusion detection systems should be configured to detect and alert on malformed action-related packets that could indicate exploitation of this vulnerability.