CVE-2017-15069 in Puma
Summary
by MITRE
The Intel Puma 5, 6, and 7 chips, as used on various Hitron devices, allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (performance degradation) by sending a moderate volume of small packets to many TCP or UDP ports. NOTE: Intel has advised that they are only a hardware manufacturer in this instance; they do NOT own the mitigation distribution channel for these chips. Any details about mitigations would need to come from Hitron.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/22/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-15069 represents a significant denial of service weakness within the Intel Puma 5, 6, and 7 chipsets that are integrated into numerous Hitron network devices. This flaw operates at the hardware level and specifically targets the network processing capabilities of these silicon components. The vulnerability manifests when remote attackers exploit a design limitation in how these chips handle incoming network traffic, particularly when subjected to deliberate flooding of small packets across multiple TCP or UDP ports. The affected hardware components are widely deployed in consumer and enterprise networking equipment, making this vulnerability potentially impactful across a broad spectrum of network infrastructure. The issue stems from insufficient rate limiting and packet processing controls within the chip's network stack implementation, which fails to properly manage concurrent connection requests or packet flows.
The technical mechanism behind this vulnerability involves the chip's inability to effectively process and prioritize incoming network packets when they arrive in rapid succession across numerous ports simultaneously. This creates a condition where the chip's processing resources become overwhelmed, leading to performance degradation that can effectively render the device unusable for legitimate network traffic. The attack requires only a moderate volume of small packets, making it particularly dangerous as it can be executed with relatively low bandwidth resources and without requiring sophisticated attack tools. The chipset's network processing unit does not implement adequate flow control mechanisms or packet queuing strategies to handle such concurrent traffic patterns, causing legitimate network operations to suffer significant performance impacts. This vulnerability is classified under CWE-400 as an unspecified vulnerability related to resource exhaustion, specifically manifesting as a denial of service condition through network packet flooding.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a substantial risk to network availability and service continuity for organizations relying on Hitron devices equipped with these Intel Puma chipsets. The performance degradation can affect network throughput, increase latency, and potentially cause complete service outages depending on the severity of the attack and the device's configuration. Network administrators may observe symptoms such as slow network response times, intermittent connectivity issues, or complete network paralysis during active attacks. The distributed nature of the vulnerability means that multiple devices across a network could be simultaneously affected, creating cascading failures that extend beyond individual device boundaries. This type of attack aligns with ATT&CK technique T1498, which describes denial of service attacks that target network services and can be executed through various methods including packet flooding and resource exhaustion.
The mitigation landscape for this vulnerability is complex due to the hardware-centric nature of the flaw and the lack of direct control by Intel over the affected devices. As noted in the original advisory, Intel serves only as the hardware manufacturer and does not maintain control over the software distribution channels for these specific chip implementations in Hitron devices. This creates a gap in the typical vulnerability management workflow where vendors typically provide firmware updates or patches directly to address such issues. Organizations must rely on Hitron to develop and distribute appropriate firmware updates or configuration changes that can address the underlying hardware behavior. Security practitioners should monitor Hitron's security advisories and update their device firmware accordingly when mitigation solutions become available. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of network segmentation and monitoring to detect unusual packet patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, as the attack does not require privileged access or complex attack vectors to be effective.