CVE-2012-5621 in ekiga
Summary
by MITRE
lib/engine/components/opal/opal-call.cpp in ekiga before 4.0.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via an OPAL connection with a party name that contains invalid UTF-8 strings.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/29/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-5621 affects the ekiga software version prior to 4.0.0, specifically within the lib/engine/components/opal/opal-call.cpp component. This flaw represents a denial of service condition that can be triggered remotely through malformed OPAL connections. The vulnerability manifests when an attacker establishes a connection with a party name containing invalid UTF-8 strings, causing the application to crash and potentially disrupting service availability for legitimate users.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the insufficient input validation within the OPAL call handling mechanism. When ekiga processes incoming connection requests, it fails to properly sanitize or validate party names that contain invalid UTF-8 sequences. This weakness allows malformed data to propagate through the application's call processing pipeline, ultimately leading to a crash condition. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically targets the OPAL protocol implementation within ekiga's telephony framework, making it particularly dangerous for VoIP and video conferencing applications where such connections are frequently established.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability enables remote attackers to perform denial of service attacks against ekiga installations without requiring authentication or privileged access. The crash condition can be triggered repeatedly, potentially leading to sustained service disruption for legitimate users attempting to establish communications. This makes the vulnerability particularly concerning for enterprise environments where ekiga might be used for critical communication purposes, as attackers could systematically disrupt service availability. The vulnerability also demonstrates poor input handling practices that could potentially lead to more severe consequences if combined with other vulnerabilities in the application stack.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-189, which addresses numeric errors in software systems, and represents a classic case of improper input validation that can lead to application instability. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to the T1499.004 technique for network denial of service attacks, specifically targeting the availability aspect of the CIA triad. The flaw also relates to T1595.001 for reconnaissance activities, as attackers would need to understand the application's behavior to craft effective malicious payloads. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including updating to ekiga version 4.0.0 or later, implementing network segmentation to limit exposure, and deploying intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious connection patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts.
Mitigation strategies should include applying the official security patch released with ekiga 4.0.0, which addresses the UTF-8 validation issue in the OPAL call processing component. Network administrators should also consider implementing connection rate limiting and monitoring for unusual party name patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additional protective measures include configuring firewalls to restrict access to ekiga services, implementing application-level filtering for incoming connection data, and conducting regular security assessments to identify similar input validation vulnerabilities in other components. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the importance of robust input validation and proper UTF-8 handling in networked applications, particularly those dealing with user-provided data in communication protocols.