CVE-2014-0949 in WebSphere Portal
Summary
by MITRE
IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1.0 through 6.1.0.6 CF27, 6.1.5 through 6.1.5.3 CF27, 7.0 through 7.0.0.2 CF28, and 8.0 before 8.0.0.1 CF12 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption and daemon crash) via a crafted web request.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/20/2021
IBM WebSphere Portal versions 6.1.0 through 6.1.0.6 CF27, 6.1.5 through 6.1.5.3 CF27, 7.0 through 7.0.0.2 CF28, and 8.0 before 8.0.0.1 CF12 contain a vulnerability that enables remote attackers to execute denial of service attacks through carefully constructed web requests. This vulnerability falls under the category of resource exhaustion and daemon crash conditions, representing a critical weakness in the portal server's request handling mechanisms. The flaw stems from insufficient input validation and request processing controls that fail to properly sanitize or limit the resources consumed during request processing. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious web requests that trigger excessive resource consumption or cause the portal daemon to crash, effectively disrupting service availability for legitimate users. The vulnerability specifically impacts the web server's ability to process incoming requests without proper bounds checking, allowing attackers to consume system resources such as memory, CPU cycles, or file descriptors in a manner that degrades performance or causes complete service interruption. This type of vulnerability is classified as a resource exhaustion attack pattern and aligns with CWE-400, which addresses unchecked resource consumption in software systems. The attack vector operates over the network through standard web protocols, requiring no authentication or privileged access to exploit the vulnerability. From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risk to enterprise environments where WebSphere Portal serves as a critical component for business applications and user access. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially affect business continuity and user productivity, particularly in scenarios where portal services are integral to core business processes. Organizations utilizing these affected versions face potential operational downtime and may experience cascading effects on dependent systems that rely on portal services for authentication, content delivery, or application integration. The vulnerability represents a classic example of insufficient input validation and resource management, where the system fails to implement proper rate limiting, request size restrictions, or resource consumption monitoring. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1499.004 which covers network denial of service attacks, and T1595.001 which addresses network infrastructure reconnaissance. The exploitation requires minimal technical skill and can be automated, making it particularly dangerous in environments with limited monitoring or automated response capabilities. Organizations should prioritize immediate patching of affected systems to mitigate this vulnerability, as the impact on service availability and operational continuity can be severe. Additionally, implementing network segmentation, rate limiting, and enhanced monitoring of portal server resources can provide additional defense in depth measures. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and resource management in enterprise web applications, particularly those serving as central access points for business services. Security teams should also consider implementing intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious request patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Regular vulnerability assessments and security testing of web applications should include evaluation of resource consumption patterns and request handling mechanisms to identify similar weaknesses in other systems. The presence of such vulnerabilities underscores the need for comprehensive security practices including regular patch management, proper configuration management, and continuous monitoring of application behavior for anomalous resource consumption patterns. Organizations should also implement proper incident response procedures to address potential exploitation attempts and ensure rapid recovery from denial of service events.