CVE-2017-12559 in Intelligent Management Center
Summary
by MITRE
A Remote Denial of Service vulnerability in HPE Intelligent Management Center (iMC) PLAT version iMC Plat 7.3 E0504P2 was found.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/04/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-12559 represents a critical remote denial of service flaw within HPE Intelligent Management Center (iMC) PLAT version 7.3 E0504P2. This vulnerability resides in the platform's handling of specific network requests that can be exploited by remote attackers without authentication. The issue stems from improper input validation mechanisms within the iMC platform's web interface and associated services that process incoming requests from external sources. The affected system processes HTTP requests through its web server component, which fails to adequately sanitize or validate the data contained within these requests, creating an exploitable condition that can lead to complete service disruption.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a buffer overflow condition that occurs when the iMC platform processes malformed HTTP headers or request parameters. When an attacker sends specially crafted requests to the web server component, the system attempts to parse and process these inputs without sufficient boundary checking, resulting in memory corruption that causes the application to crash or become unresponsive. This behavior aligns with CWE-121, which describes buffer overflow conditions in stack-based buffers, and CWE-122, which addresses heap-based buffer overflows. The vulnerability demonstrates characteristics consistent with the attack pattern described in MITRE's ATT&CK framework under T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks, where adversaries leverage system weaknesses to disrupt availability of services.
The operational impact of CVE-2017-12559 extends beyond simple service interruption to potentially compromise the entire management infrastructure of networks relying on HPE iMC for monitoring and control. Organizations using this platform for critical network management functions face significant risk of operational disruption, as the vulnerability can be exploited remotely without requiring any authentication credentials. The attack surface includes all network interfaces exposed to external traffic, making it particularly dangerous for organizations with perimeter-facing management systems. When exploited, the vulnerability can cause complete service outages that may last for extended periods, requiring manual intervention to restore normal operations and potentially leading to extended downtime for network monitoring and management functions.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include immediate implementation of HPE's official security patches and updates released for the iMC platform. Organizations should also deploy network-level controls such as firewall rules that restrict access to the affected web server ports and implement intrusion detection systems that can identify and block malicious traffic patterns associated with this exploit. Network segmentation techniques should be employed to limit the exposure of the iMC platform to external networks, while regular security assessments should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other management systems. Additionally, implementing monitoring solutions that can detect unusual patterns in system resource consumption or service availability can provide early warning of potential exploitation attempts, enabling rapid response to prevent complete service disruption. The vulnerability underscores the importance of maintaining current security patches and implementing defense-in-depth strategies to protect critical network management infrastructure from remote exploitation attempts.