CVE-2014-0186 in Red Hat
Summary
by MITRE
A certain tomcat7 package for Apache Tomcat 7 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a crafted request. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an unspecified regression.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/22/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-0186 represents a significant denial of service flaw within the Apache Tomcat 7 implementation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 systems. This issue stems from an unspecified regression that affects the tomcat7 package, creating a condition where remote attackers can exploit the service by crafting specific requests that consume excessive CPU resources. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically targets the processing capabilities of the web server, making it particularly dangerous in production environments where system availability is critical.
The technical nature of this flaw involves a regression that likely occurred during software updates or patches, where previously functioning code paths became susceptible to malformed input processing. When attackers submit crafted requests to the vulnerable Tomcat instance, the server's processing logic becomes trapped in resource-intensive operations that consume substantial CPU cycles without effectively serving legitimate requests. This behavior aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes unchecked resource consumption as a fundamental weakness in software design that can lead to denial of service conditions. The regression aspect suggests that the vulnerability may have emerged from a recent change in the codebase that introduced an inefficient or overly complex processing routine that handles specific input patterns.
The operational impact of CVE-2014-0186 extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can potentially bring entire web applications to a halt and affect multiple concurrent users simultaneously. Attackers can maintain sustained CPU consumption by repeatedly submitting malicious requests, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous for applications that rely heavily on Tomcat for serving dynamic content. The resource exhaustion can lead to cascading failures where system performance degrades to the point that legitimate users cannot access services, while the continuous CPU consumption may also trigger automatic scaling mechanisms or alerting systems that flag the environment as compromised. This vulnerability also presents an opportunity for attackers to perform resource-based attacks that could be combined with other techniques to establish persistent access or conduct more sophisticated operations.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-0186 should focus on immediate patching of the affected tomcat7 package through Red Hat's security updates, which would address the underlying regression. Organizations should also implement rate limiting and request validation mechanisms at the network level to prevent excessive processing of malformed requests, which aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.200 for resource exhaustion attacks. Additionally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual CPU consumption patterns and alert administrators to potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of thorough regression testing during software updates, as the unspecified nature of the regression suggests that proper testing procedures were inadequate to catch the performance degradation before deployment. Security teams should also consider implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit the potential impact of such attacks and ensure that critical services remain available even when individual components are under attack.