CVE-2013-4296 in Linux
Summary
by MITRE
The remoteDispatchDomainMemoryStats function in daemon/remote.c in libvirt 0.9.1 through 0.10.1.x, 0.10.2.x before 0.10.2.8, 1.0.x before 1.0.5.6, and 1.1.x before 1.1.2 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (uninitialized pointer dereference and crash) via a crafted RPC call.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/08/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-4296 represents a critical denial of service flaw within the libvirt virtualization management library. This issue affects multiple versions of the libvirt daemon including releases from 0.9.1 through 0.10.1.x, 0.10.2.x prior to 0.10.2.8, 1.0.x prior to 1.0.5.6, and 1.1.x prior to 1.1.2. The vulnerability specifically resides in the remoteDispatchDomainMemoryStats function located within the daemon/remote.c file, which serves as the remote procedure call dispatcher for libvirt's daemon service. This function handles memory statistics requests for virtual domains, making it a critical component in the management and monitoring of virtualized environments.
The technical flaw manifests as an uninitialized pointer dereference that occurs when processing a specially crafted RPC call. When a remote authenticated user sends a malformed memory statistics request, the function fails to properly initialize a pointer variable before attempting to dereference it. This uninitialized pointer access leads to immediate program termination and system crash, effectively causing a denial of service condition that impacts the availability of the libvirt daemon. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it requires only authenticated access to the remote libvirt service, which is often accessible over network interfaces, making it exploitable by attackers who can establish legitimate connections to the service. This flaw directly maps to CWE-476, which describes the weakness of null pointer dereference, and falls under the broader category of memory safety issues that can lead to system instability and service disruption.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can severely compromise the stability of virtualized environments that rely on libvirt for domain management. Organizations running virtualization infrastructure using affected libvirt versions face the risk of unauthorized denial of service attacks that could disrupt critical virtual machines and their associated services. The vulnerability affects the core functionality of libvirt's remote management capabilities, potentially causing cascading failures in virtualized infrastructure where multiple domains depend on the daemon's availability. Attackers can exploit this weakness to repeatedly crash the libvirt daemon, forcing administrators to restart services manually and potentially causing temporary outages in virtualized workloads. The impact is particularly severe in cloud computing environments and data centers where libvirt is commonly used for managing large numbers of virtual machines, as a successful attack could disrupt operations across multiple virtual domains simultaneously.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-4296 should prioritize immediate patching of affected libvirt installations to versions that contain the necessary security fixes. System administrators should upgrade to libvirt versions 0.10.2.8, 1.0.5.6, or 1.1.2 and later, which contain the patched remoteDispatchDomainMemoryStats function that properly initializes required pointer variables. Network segmentation and access control measures should be implemented to limit remote access to libvirt services, ensuring that only authorized administrators can establish connections to the daemon. The principle of least privilege should be enforced by restricting authentication credentials and implementing strong access controls for remote libvirt management interfaces. Additionally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual patterns of service disruption or repeated connection attempts that might indicate exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which involves network disruption through service exhaustion, and represents a classic example of how remote authenticated denial of service vulnerabilities can be leveraged to compromise availability in virtualized computing environments. Organizations should also implement regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning to identify and remediate similar issues in their virtualization infrastructure.