CVE-2013-4282 in Red Hat
Summary
by MITRE
Stack-based buffer overflow in the reds_handle_ticket function in server/reds.c in SPICE 0.12.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a long password in a SPICE ticket.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/10/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-4282 represents a critical stack-based buffer overflow flaw within the SPICE virtualization protocol implementation. This issue specifically affects SPICE version 0.12.0 and resides in the reds_handle_ticket function located in the server/reds.c source file. The vulnerability arises from insufficient input validation when processing SPICE tickets, particularly when handling password data submitted by remote attackers. The flaw demonstrates characteristics consistent with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions where insufficient bounds checking allows attackers to overwrite adjacent memory locations on the program stack.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when a remote attacker crafts a malicious SPICE ticket containing an excessively long password string. During the processing of this ticket, the reds_handle_ticket function fails to properly validate the length of the password field before copying it into a fixed-size stack buffer. This allows the attacker to overflow the buffer and overwrite adjacent stack memory, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution or system crash. The vulnerability's impact is classified as a denial of service condition, as demonstrated by the crash behavior that occurs when the overflowed stack memory corrupts the program's execution flow. The attack vector is remote and requires no authentication, making it particularly dangerous in networked environments where SPICE servers are exposed to untrusted clients.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for virtualization environments that rely on SPICE protocol for remote desktop access. The denial of service impact can disrupt critical virtual desktop infrastructure services, potentially affecting multiple users simultaneously. Organizations using SPICE 0.12.0 servers for remote access, virtual desktop infrastructure deployments, or cloud computing platforms face potential service disruption. The vulnerability's exploitation does not require elevated privileges or specialized knowledge, making it accessible to a broad range of threat actors. This characteristic aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks, and demonstrates how vulnerabilities in core protocol implementations can create widespread service availability issues.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-4282 should prioritize immediate patching of affected SPICE implementations to version 0.12.1 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the buffer overflow condition. Organizations should also implement network segmentation to limit exposure of SPICE servers to untrusted networks and consider deploying intrusion detection systems that can identify anomalous ticket handling patterns. Additional protective measures include implementing strict input validation at network boundaries, monitoring for unusual password length patterns in SPICE authentication requests, and conducting regular vulnerability assessments of virtualization infrastructure components. The fix typically involves adding proper bounds checking to the reds_handle_ticket function to ensure that password data does not exceed the allocated buffer size, thereby preventing the stack overflow condition that enables the denial of service attack.