CVE-2017-15349 in CloudEngine
Summary
by MITRE
Huawei CloudEngine 12800 V100R003C00, V100R005C00, V100R005C10, V100R006C00,CloudEngine 5800 V100R003C00, V100R005C00, V100R005C10, V100R006C00,CloudEngine 6800 V100R003C00, V100R005C00, V100R005C10, V100R006C00,CloudEngine 7800 V100R003C00, V100R005C00, V100R005C10, V100R006C00 have a memory leak vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker may send specific Resource ReServation Protocol (RSVP) packets to the affected products. Due to not release the memory to handle the packets, successful exploit will result in memory leak of the affected products and lead to a DoS condition.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/08/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-15349 represents a critical memory leak issue affecting Huawei's CloudEngine series network switches including the 12800, 5800, 6800, and 7800 models across multiple software versions. This flaw resides in the handling of Resource ReServation Protocol (RSVP) packets, which are essential components of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks used for bandwidth reservation and traffic engineering. The vulnerability manifests when the network equipment fails to properly release memory allocated for processing RSVP packets, creating a gradual degradation of system resources that ultimately leads to denial of service conditions.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through the injection of specifically crafted RSVP packets from an unauthenticated attacker positioned on the network. According to the CWE classification system, this represents a memory leak vulnerability categorized under CWE-401, which specifically addresses the failure to release memory resources after use. The attack vector leverages the protocol processing mechanisms within Huawei's networking equipment where the system allocates memory buffers to handle incoming RSVP messages but does not properly deallocate these resources upon completion of packet processing. This memory management failure creates a persistent resource drain that accumulates over time.
From an operational impact perspective, the vulnerability poses significant risks to network availability and reliability across enterprise and service provider environments. The denial of service condition can affect critical network services including MPLS traffic engineering, quality of service implementations, and general network forwarding capabilities. Network administrators may observe gradual performance degradation followed by complete service interruption as memory resources become exhausted. The vulnerability affects multiple generations of Huawei's CloudEngine hardware, indicating a widespread issue within the product line that requires immediate attention across affected deployments. The attack does not require authentication, making it particularly dangerous as any network participant can potentially exploit the vulnerability.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on immediate network segmentation and access control measures to prevent unauthorized access to network devices. Network administrators should implement ingress filtering and packet inspection rules to detect and block malformed RSVP packets. The recommended approach involves applying official firmware updates from Huawei that address the memory management flaw in the RSVP processing module. Additionally, monitoring systems should be enhanced to track memory utilization patterns and alert administrators to unusual resource consumption that may indicate exploitation attempts. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under the T1499.004 technique for network denial of service, emphasizing the importance of proper resource management and memory handling in network infrastructure devices. Organizations should also consider implementing redundant network paths and failover mechanisms to minimize the impact of potential exploitation attempts.