CVE-2015-1987 in MQ Light
Summary
by MITRE
IBM MQ Light before 1.0.0.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (disk consumption) via a crafted byte sequence in authentication data, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-1956 and CVE-2015-1958.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/07/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-1987 affects IBM MQ Light versions prior to 1.0.0.2 and represents a denial of service flaw that specifically targets disk resource consumption through crafted authentication data. This vulnerability operates at the application layer and demonstrates how improperly handled input validation can lead to resource exhaustion attacks that compromise system availability. The flaw is distinct from other related vulnerabilities in the same vulnerability family such as CVE-2015-1956 and CVE-2015-1958, which indicates that IBM addressed different aspects of the security landscape in their respective patches.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of authentication data within the IBM MQ Light service. When a remote attacker submits a crafted byte sequence in the authentication data, the system fails to properly sanitize or validate the input before processing it. This allows the malicious input to trigger unexpected behavior in the application's resource management mechanisms, specifically leading to uncontrolled disk space consumption. The vulnerability operates through a classic resource exhaustion attack pattern where the attacker can manipulate the application into consuming disk space at an accelerated rate, ultimately leading to system instability or complete denial of service.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to systems that rely on IBM MQ Light for message queuing and messaging services. The disk consumption aspect of this flaw means that organizations could experience unexpected system outages or degraded performance as storage space becomes depleted. The attack requires remote access and can be executed without authentication, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by anyone with network access to the vulnerable system. This vulnerability directly impacts the availability aspect of the CIA triad and can be classified under the CWE-400 category for unspecified resource management issues, specifically related to disk space exhaustion.
The attack vector for this vulnerability aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the technique T1499 for network denial of service, where adversaries specifically target system resources to prevent legitimate use of services. Organizations using IBM MQ Light should prioritize patching their systems to address this vulnerability, as it represents a straightforward path to service disruption that requires minimal expertise to exploit. The vulnerability's classification under CWE-400 highlights the importance of proper input validation and resource management practices in preventing such issues. Security teams should implement monitoring for unusual disk consumption patterns and ensure that all IBM MQ Light installations are updated to version 1.0.0.2 or later to mitigate this specific threat vector.