CVE-2015-1886 in WebSphere Portal
Summary
by MITRE
The Remote Document Conversion Service (DCS) in IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1.0 through 6.1.0.6 CF27, 6.1.5 through 6.1.5.3 CF27, 7.0.0 through 7.0.0.2 CF29, 8.0.0 before 8.0.0.1 CF16, and 8.5.0 through CF05 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via crafted requests.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/09/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-1886 resides within IBM WebSphere Portal's Remote Document Conversion Service, a component designed to facilitate document conversion operations across remote systems. This service operates as a critical backend functionality enabling users to convert various document formats through web-based interfaces. The affected versions span multiple releases including 6.1.0 through 6.1.0.6, 6.1.5 through 6.1.5.3, 7.0.0 through 7.0.0.2, 8.0.0 before 8.0.0.1, and 8.5.0 through specific cumulative fixes, indicating a widespread impact across IBM WebSphere Portal's major version lines. The vulnerability manifests as a memory consumption issue that can be triggered through carefully crafted malicious requests, representing a significant security concern for organizations relying on this portal infrastructure.
The technical flaw stems from insufficient input validation and resource management within the document conversion service's request processing mechanism. When remote attackers submit specially crafted requests to the DCS endpoint, the service fails to properly validate or limit the resource consumption associated with these operations. This weakness allows attackers to submit requests that consume excessive memory resources, potentially leading to system instability and complete denial of service conditions. The vulnerability operates at the application level where the service processes document conversion requests without adequate safeguards against malformed or resource-intensive inputs. The flaw is particularly dangerous because it can be exploited remotely without requiring authentication, making it accessible to any attacker who can reach the target system's network.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise entire portal infrastructures. Organizations utilizing affected IBM WebSphere Portal versions face significant risks including complete service outages, degraded performance for legitimate users, and potential system crashes that could affect business operations. The memory consumption aspect means that even a small number of malicious requests can rapidly deplete available system resources, making the attack particularly effective. This vulnerability directly affects the availability aspect of the CIA security triad, as it enables attackers to deny legitimate users access to portal services. The impact is especially severe in enterprise environments where portal systems serve as central access points for business applications and collaborative platforms, potentially affecting thousands of users simultaneously.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant IBM security patches and fixes released for this vulnerability, which address the input validation and resource management issues within the DCS component. Network-level protections such as rate limiting and request filtering should be implemented to prevent excessive resource consumption from malicious requests. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes it as an Uncontrolled Resource Consumption issue, and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for Network Denial of Service attacks. Additional defensive measures include implementing intrusion detection systems to monitor for unusual request patterns, configuring system resource limits to prevent complete memory exhaustion, and establishing robust monitoring protocols to detect early signs of exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in related components and ensure comprehensive protection across the entire WebSphere Portal infrastructure.