CVE-2012-2685 in Cumin
Summary
by MITRE
Cumin before 0.1.5444, as used in Red Hat Enterprise Messaging, Realtime, and Grid (MRG) 2.0, allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a large size in an image request.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/14/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-2685 affects Cumin versions prior to 0.1.5444, which were integrated into Red Hat Enterprise Messaging, Realtime, and Grid (MRG) 2.0 platforms. This flaw represents a denial of service condition that specifically targets memory consumption within the image processing functionality of the affected systems. The vulnerability operates through a crafted image request that contains an excessively large size parameter, allowing authenticated attackers to consume system resources and potentially disrupt service availability.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the Cumin image processing module. When an authenticated user submits an image request with an oversized size parameter, the system fails to properly validate or limit the requested dimensions before processing the image. This lack of proper bounds checking creates an exploitable condition where the application allocates excessive memory resources to handle the malformed request. The flaw falls under CWE-129, Input Validation, as it demonstrates insufficient validation of input parameters that could lead to resource exhaustion. The vulnerability operates at the application layer, specifically targeting the image processing component that handles user requests within the MRG framework.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to the availability of services within Red Hat MRG environments. An authenticated attacker with access to the system can leverage this flaw to consume excessive memory resources, potentially leading to system instability, application crashes, or complete service unavailability. The memory consumption aspect of this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers Network Denial of Service, as the attacker can consume system resources to prevent legitimate users from accessing services. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption, as it could affect the entire messaging infrastructure that relies on these components for reliable communication between distributed systems.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2012-2685 should prioritize immediate patching of affected Cumin versions to 0.1.5444 or later releases that contain proper input validation. System administrators should implement rate limiting and resource monitoring to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, network segmentation and access controls should be enforced to limit the number of authenticated users who can submit image requests. The implementation of proper input sanitization and size parameter validation should be enforced across all image processing components. Organizations should also consider deploying intrusion detection systems capable of identifying malformed image requests that exceed predefined size thresholds, as this vulnerability can be detected through network traffic analysis and system log monitoring. Regular security assessments of the MRG platform components should be conducted to identify similar validation gaps in other subsystems that may present similar exploitation vectors.