CVE-2012-0712 in DB2
Summary
by MITRE
The XML feature in IBM DB2 9.5 before FP9, 9.7 through FP5, and 9.8 through FP4 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by calling the XMLPARSE function with a crafted string expression.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/21/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-0712 represents a critical denial of service weakness in IBM DB2 database management systems across multiple versions including 9.5 before fix pack 9, 9.7 through fix pack 5, and 9.8 through fix pack 4. This flaw specifically targets the XML processing capabilities within the database engine, where the XMLPARSE function becomes susceptible to malicious input that triggers an infinite loop condition. The vulnerability requires remote authenticated access, meaning that an attacker must already possess valid credentials to exploit this weakness, though the impact remains severe as it can effectively render database services unavailable to legitimate users.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the XML parsing implementation. When the XMLPARSE function processes crafted string expressions, the parser enters into an infinite loop due to malformed XML structures that cause the internal processing logic to repeatedly iterate without proper termination conditions. This behavior manifests as a denial of service condition where system resources become consumed indefinitely, preventing the database from processing legitimate queries and potentially causing complete service disruption. The flaw operates at the application level within the database engine's XML processing module, making it particularly challenging to detect and mitigate through traditional network-based security controls.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise database availability and system stability. Organizations relying on IBM DB2 for critical business operations face significant risk as this vulnerability can be exploited by malicious insiders or compromised accounts to perform sustained denial of service attacks against database systems. The infinite loop condition consumes CPU cycles and memory resources continuously, which can lead to cascading failures affecting database performance and potentially impacting downstream applications that depend on database connectivity. This vulnerability particularly affects environments where XML data processing is frequently utilized, which is common in enterprise applications handling complex data structures and web services integration.
Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation by applying the appropriate IBM DB2 fix packs that address this vulnerability, specifically targeting the mentioned versions and their respective fix packs. System administrators should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual CPU utilization patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, as well as establish network segmentation to limit access to database systems to authorized personnel only. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-835, which describes the weakness of infinite loops or infinite recursion in software implementations, and represents a classic example of how malformed input processing can lead to resource exhaustion attacks. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to the T1499.004 technique related to network denial of service attacks, though the specific method of exploitation through XML parsing functions makes it particularly relevant to database-specific attack vectors. Additional mitigations include implementing strict input validation for XML data, limiting database user permissions to reduce potential impact, and maintaining regular security updates to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in future versions of the database software.