CVE-2017-1000064 in kitto
Summary
by MITRE
kittoframework kitto version 0.5.1 is vulnerable to memory exhaustion in the router resulting in DoS
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/26/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-1000064 affects the kittoframework kitto version 0.5.1 and represents a critical memory exhaustion issue within the router component that can lead to denial of service conditions. This vulnerability specifically targets the routing functionality of the framework, where improper handling of memory allocation during route processing creates opportunities for adversaries to consume excessive system resources. The kittoframework is a web application framework designed to facilitate rapid development of web applications, and its router component serves as the core mechanism for handling HTTP requests and directing them to appropriate application handlers. When exploited, this vulnerability allows attackers to craft malicious requests that cause the router to allocate excessive memory resources, ultimately leading to system instability and service disruption.
The technical flaw stems from inadequate input validation and memory management practices within the router's request processing pipeline. The vulnerability manifests when the framework receives specially crafted HTTP requests that trigger unexpected memory allocation patterns within the routing engine. This memory exhaustion occurs through the exploitation of the router's internal data structures and processing mechanisms that do not properly limit or validate the resources consumed during route matching and request handling. The flaw essentially allows an attacker to cause the system to allocate memory in a manner that grows without bounds or consumes resources at an unsustainable rate, directly violating the principle of resource exhaustion prevention. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which addresses unchecked resource consumption, and demonstrates poor memory management practices that can be categorized under the broader category of resource leak vulnerabilities.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and can result in complete service disruption for applications built on the affected framework version. When exploited, the memory exhaustion condition can cause the web application to become unresponsive, crash entirely, or require manual restart to restore normal operation. System administrators may observe increasing memory usage, degraded performance, and potential system instability affecting not only the vulnerable application but potentially other services running on the same infrastructure. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous in production environments where high availability and continuous operation are critical requirements. Attackers can leverage this weakness to perform sustained denial of service attacks against web applications, potentially causing business disruption and financial losses. Organizations relying on kittoframework applications may experience significant downtime and require emergency response procedures to address the impact.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-1000064 should focus on immediate remediation through framework version updates and implementation of additional protective measures. The most effective solution involves upgrading to a patched version of kittoframework that addresses the memory exhaustion issue in the router component. Organizations should also implement rate limiting and request validation mechanisms to prevent malicious requests from reaching the vulnerable routing engine. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls and intrusion prevention systems can help detect and block suspicious request patterns that may trigger the vulnerability. Additionally, system administrators should monitor memory usage patterns and implement automated alerting for unusual resource consumption that could indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and resource management practices, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for resource exhaustion and emphasizing the need for robust memory management in web application frameworks. Organizations should also consider implementing application-level monitoring and logging to detect potential exploitation attempts and maintain audit trails for security incident response activities.