CVE-2015-5401 in Gateway
Summary
by MITRE
Teradata Gateway before 15.00.03.02-1 and 15.10.x before 15.10.00.01-1 and TD Express before 15.00.02.08_Sles10 and 15.00.02.08_Sles11 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (database crash) via a malformed CONFIG REQUEST message.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/25/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-5401 affects Teradata Gateway versions prior to specific patches, creating a critical remote denial of service condition that can crash database systems. This flaw exists within the gateway component that serves as an interface between client applications and Teradata database systems, making it a significant concern for enterprise database environments that rely on Teradata's data management platforms.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the CONFIG REQUEST message processing mechanism. When a malformed CONFIG REQUEST message is received by the vulnerable gateway component, the system fails to properly handle the malformed data structure, leading to an uncontrolled crash of the database service. This represents a classic buffer overflow or input validation vulnerability where the system does not adequately sanitize or validate incoming network traffic before processing it. The flaw operates at the protocol level where the gateway fails to implement proper error handling for malformed configuration requests, causing the entire database service to become unavailable.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates severe business disruption potential for organizations using Teradata systems. A remote attacker can exploit this weakness without requiring authentication credentials, making it particularly dangerous as it can be leveraged from any network location to cause database outages. The denial of service condition affects database availability and can result in significant downtime for critical business applications that depend on Teradata for data processing and analytics. This vulnerability directly impacts the availability component of the CIA triad and can cause cascading failures throughout enterprise systems that rely on database connectivity.
Organizations should implement immediate patch management strategies to address this vulnerability by upgrading to the patched versions of Teradata Gateway. The affected versions include Teradata Gateway before 15.00.03.02-1 and 15.10.x before 15.10.00.01-1, as well as TD Express before 15.00.02.08_Sles10 and 15.00.02.08_Sles11. Network segmentation and firewall rules should be implemented to restrict access to gateway services where possible, though this does not fully mitigate the risk since the vulnerability can be exploited remotely. Monitoring network traffic for malformed CONFIG REQUEST messages can provide early detection of potential exploitation attempts.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and represents a weakness in input validation that allows attackers to manipulate system behavior through malformed data. The attack pattern follows the MITRE ATT&CK framework's technique T1499 for network denial of service, where adversaries leverage system vulnerabilities to disrupt network services. Organizations should also consider implementing intrusion detection systems that can identify and alert on suspicious CONFIG REQUEST patterns, as well as establishing incident response procedures to quickly address potential exploitation attempts and restore service availability.