CVE-2012-0104 in GlassFish Enterprise Server
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in Oracle GlassFish Enterprise Server 3.0.1 and 3.1.1 allows remote attackers to affect availability via unknown vectors related to Web Container.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/23/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-0104 resides within Oracle GlassFish Enterprise Server versions 3.0.1 and 3.1.1, specifically impacting the Web Container component. This unspecified weakness represents a significant security concern as it enables remote attackers to compromise system availability without direct access to the underlying infrastructure. The affected Web Container serves as the primary HTTP request processing layer within the GlassFish application server, making it a critical attack surface for potential disruption attempts.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and error handling mechanisms within the Web Container's request processing pipeline. Attackers can exploit this weakness through carefully crafted malicious requests that trigger unexpected behavior in the container's response handling. The unspecified vector nature suggests that multiple attack paths may exist, potentially including malformed HTTP headers, unusual request parameters, or crafted payload structures that cause the container to enter an unstable state. This lack of specificity in the vulnerability description indicates that the underlying flaw may involve multiple related issues within the container's processing logic.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability directly threatens the availability and reliability of applications hosted on affected GlassFish servers. When successfully exploited, the vulnerability can cause the Web Container to crash, restart unexpectedly, or become unresponsive to legitimate requests. This disruption can result in complete service outages for applications depending on the affected server, potentially affecting business continuity and customer access to critical services. The remote nature of the attack means that adversaries can exploit this weakness from anywhere on the internet without requiring physical access or local network privileges.
Security professionals should consider this vulnerability in relation to CWE-119, which addresses weakness in memory handling, and CWE-20, which covers input validation issues. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a denial of service attack vector under the technique of "Resource Exhaustion" and potentially "Application Layer Protocol" manipulation. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including patching to the latest GlassFish versions, network segmentation to limit exposure, and monitoring for unusual traffic patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, configuring proper firewall rules to restrict unnecessary HTTP traffic and implementing intrusion detection systems can help detect and prevent exploitation of this vulnerability.