CVE-2015-3287 in OpenAFS
Summary
by MITRE
The vlserver in OpenAFS before 1.6.13 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read and crash) via a crafted regular expression in a VL_ListAttributesN2 RPC.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/09/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-3287 affects the vlserver component within OpenAFS version 1.6.12 and earlier, representing a critical security flaw that enables remote authenticated attackers to trigger denial of service conditions through carefully crafted input. This vulnerability specifically targets the VL_ListAttributesN2 RPC mechanism, which is part of the OpenAFS Volume Location service responsible for managing volume location information across the distributed file system. The flaw manifests when the server processes regular expressions that contain malformed or specially constructed patterns, leading to out-of-bounds memory read operations that ultimately result in system crashes and service disruption.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and boundary checking within the regular expression processing logic of the vlserver. When an authenticated user submits a maliciously constructed regular expression through the VL_ListAttributesN2 RPC call, the server fails to properly validate the input parameters before attempting to parse and process the pattern. This inadequate validation leads to memory access violations where the processing routine attempts to read data beyond the allocated buffer boundaries, causing unpredictable behavior and system instability. The vulnerability is classified as an out-of-bounds read condition, which according to CWE-129 represents improper validation of length of input buffers, and falls under the broader category of memory safety issues that frequently lead to system compromise.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption as it provides attackers with a method to systematically destabilize OpenAFS services without requiring elevated privileges. Since the vulnerability requires only authenticated access, it represents a significant risk to environments where legitimate users might be compromised or where access controls are insufficiently enforced. The denial of service condition affects not just individual server processes but can potentially cascade across the entire OpenAFS infrastructure, as volume location services are fundamental to file system operations. This vulnerability directly impacts the availability aspect of the CIA triad and can be leveraged as part of broader attack strategies that include service disruption as a precursor to more sophisticated exploitation attempts.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies including upgrading to OpenAFS version 1.6.13 or later, which contains the necessary patches to address the input validation deficiencies. Additionally, network segmentation and access control measures should be strengthened to limit the number of authenticated users who can submit RPC requests to vlserver components. Monitoring systems should be enhanced to detect anomalous RPC request patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, particularly those involving unusual regular expression structures. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with the T1499 technique category for network denial of service, and could be used as part of a broader attack chain leading to T1078 credential access or T1566 initial access through service disruption. The vulnerability also demonstrates the importance of input sanitization and boundary checking as fundamental security practices, reinforcing the need for comprehensive security testing including fuzzing and boundary condition analysis of all RPC interfaces within distributed systems.