CVE-2014-8177 in Gluster Storage Server
Summary
by MITRE
The Red Hat gluster-swift package, as used in Red Hat Gluster Storage (formerly Red Hat Storage Server), allows remote authenticated users to bypass the max_meta_count constraint via multiple crafted requests which exceed the limit when combined.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/23/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-8177 affects the Red Hat gluster-swift package within Red Hat Gluster Storage, representing a significant security flaw that undermines the system's data integrity controls. This issue manifests in the form of a constraint bypass mechanism that allows authenticated remote attackers to circumvent the max_meta_count limitation that is designed to prevent excessive metadata attachment to objects within the storage system. The vulnerability specifically targets the metadata handling mechanisms of the Swift-compatible storage layer that Gluster Storage provides, creating a potential avenue for resource exhaustion and denial of service conditions.
The technical implementation of this flaw involves the manipulation of multiple crafted requests that individually remain within the allowed limits but when aggregated exceed the configured max_meta_count threshold. This type of vulnerability represents a classic example of a constraint bypass attack where the system validation occurs at the individual request level rather than at the aggregate level, allowing attackers to gradually accumulate metadata beyond the intended limits. The flaw exploits the lack of proper state tracking across multiple requests, enabling attackers to incrementally build up metadata beyond the security boundary without triggering immediate detection mechanisms.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses serious risks to system availability and resource management within Gluster Storage environments. Attackers can potentially exhaust storage metadata space, leading to denial of service conditions where legitimate users cannot store new metadata with their objects. The vulnerability also creates opportunities for data manipulation and can potentially be leveraged to affect system performance through metadata fragmentation and storage space exhaustion. Organizations relying on Red Hat Gluster Storage for object storage services face potential disruption to their storage operations and may experience degraded performance as the system struggles to manage the excessive metadata accumulation.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-1286, which addresses the issue of improper constraint checking in web applications, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 related to network denial of service. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including updating to patched versions of the gluster-swift package, implementing additional monitoring for unusual metadata patterns, and configuring more restrictive metadata limits. The fix typically involves strengthening the validation logic to track cumulative metadata usage across multiple requests rather than validating individual requests in isolation. Security teams should also consider implementing rate limiting and request aggregation monitoring to detect and prevent exploitation attempts, while maintaining regular vulnerability assessments to identify similar constraint bypass opportunities in other storage system components.