CVE-2017-15341 in AR3200
Summary
by MITRE
Huawei AR3200 V200R008C20, V200R008C30, TE40 V600R006C00, TE50 V600R006C00, TE60 V600R006C00 have a denial of service vulnerability. The software decodes X.509 certificate in an improper way. A remote unauthenticated attacker could send a crafted X.509 certificate to the device. Successful exploit could result in a denial of service on the device.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/08/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-15341 affects Huawei AR3200 series routers and TE series video conferencing devices running specific software versions. This issue represents a critical denial of service vulnerability that stems from improper handling of X.509 certificate decoding processes within the affected Huawei network equipment. The flaw exists in the certificate processing logic that fails to properly validate or sanitize incoming X.509 certificates before attempting to decode them, creating a potential attack vector that can be exploited by remote unauthenticated adversaries.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs when the affected Huawei devices encounter malformed or specially crafted X.509 certificates during normal network operations or authentication processes. The improper decoding mechanism causes the device to crash or become unresponsive when processing these malformed certificates, leading to a complete denial of service condition that renders the network equipment non-functional. This vulnerability specifically impacts the certificate handling routines within the device's security framework, where the software does not adequately implement input validation checks or exception handling for malformed certificate data structures.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to network availability and business continuity for organizations relying on Huawei networking equipment. The remote unauthenticated nature of the attack means that adversaries can exploit this flaw from outside the network perimeter without requiring any credentials or prior access. Once successfully exploited, the denial of service condition can disrupt critical network services, potentially affecting enterprise communications, video conferencing capabilities, and overall network infrastructure availability. The impact extends beyond simple service interruption as it can affect mission-critical operations that depend on these network devices for connectivity and security services.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to isolate affected devices, implementing access controls to limit certificate exchange processes, and applying official firmware updates provided by Huawei to address the certificate decoding flaw. Network administrators should also consider monitoring for unusual certificate processing activities or potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-170, which addresses improper handling of input that could lead to processing errors, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. Additionally, this issue demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and secure coding practices in network security infrastructure, particularly in the handling of cryptographic certificate data that forms the foundation of secure communications protocols.