CVE-2016-3628 in Enterprise Message Service
Summary
by MITRE
Buffer overflow in tibemsd in the server in TIBCO Enterprise Message Service (EMS) before 8.3.0 and EMS Appliance before 2.4.0 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted inbound data.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/19/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-3628 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within the TIBCO Enterprise Message Service (EMS) server component known as tibemsd. This issue affects versions prior to 8.3.0 of the EMS server and versions prior to 2.4.0 of the EMS Appliance, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on TIBCO messaging infrastructure. The vulnerability specifically targets the server's handling of inbound data, making it exploitable by authenticated remote attackers who can leverage this weakness to either disrupt service availability or potentially gain arbitrary code execution privileges within the affected system environment.
The technical nature of this flaw stems from improper input validation and memory management within the tibemsd server process. When processing crafted inbound data packets, the server fails to adequately bounds-check buffer allocations, allowing maliciously constructed data to overflow allocated memory regions. This buffer overflow condition can result in memory corruption that may be exploited to manipulate program execution flow, potentially leading to remote code execution or system instability. The vulnerability's classification as a buffer overflow aligns with CWE-121, which describes heap-based buffer overflow conditions where insufficient bounds checking allows data to overwrite adjacent memory locations.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for enterprise messaging environments that depend on TIBCO EMS for critical business communications. Remote authenticated attackers can exploit this flaw to cause denial of service conditions that may disrupt message broker operations and compromise business continuity. The potential for arbitrary code execution elevates the threat level significantly, as successful exploitation could allow attackers to establish persistent access, escalate privileges, or deploy additional malicious payloads within the compromised messaging infrastructure. Organizations utilizing affected versions face potential data loss, service disruption, and possible lateral movement within their network infrastructure through the compromised messaging system.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2016-3628 should prioritize immediate patching of affected systems to version 8.3.0 or later for the EMS server and 2.4.0 or later for the EMS Appliance. Network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit authentication access to only trusted entities, reducing the attack surface for potential exploitation. Additionally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual patterns in message broker communications that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's characteristics align with ATT&CK technique T1203, which covers exploitation for privilege escalation, and T1499, covering network disruption through denial of service attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing intrusion detection systems and regular security assessments to identify potential exploitation attempts and maintain ongoing security posture improvement.