CVE-2017-6198 in Sandstorm
Summary
by MITRE
The Supervisor in Sandstorm doesn't set and enforce the resource limits of a process. This allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service by launching a fork bomb in the sandbox, or by using a large amount of disk space.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/02/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-6198 resides within the Supervisor component of the Sandstorm platform, a secure web application gateway designed to run untrusted applications in isolated environments. This flaw represents a critical oversight in the sandboxing architecture that fundamentally undermines the security model of the platform. The Supervisor component is responsible for managing and enforcing resource constraints on applications running within the Sandstorm environment, yet it fails to properly implement and enforce these limitations, creating a significant attack surface for malicious actors.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the Supervisor's inability to effectively monitor and restrict resource consumption by sandboxed applications. When applications are launched within Sandstorm's environment, they should be subject to strict limits on CPU usage, memory allocation, and disk space consumption. However, the Supervisor component lacks proper enforcement mechanisms that would prevent applications from consuming excessive system resources. This failure creates multiple attack vectors that can be exploited by remote adversaries to compromise system availability and performance.
The operational impact of this vulnerability manifests through two primary attack vectors that can lead to denial of service conditions. The first vector involves the exploitation of fork bomb capabilities within the sandboxed environment, where malicious applications can rapidly create numerous processes that exhaust system resources and cause the platform to become unresponsive. The second vector leverages excessive disk space consumption, allowing attackers to fill available storage capacity and prevent legitimate applications from functioning properly. Both attack methods exploit the fundamental weakness in resource management that should have been enforced by the Supervisor component.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which addresses "Uncontrolled Resource Consumption" and represents a classic example of insufficient resource management within a security-critical system. The attack pattern corresponds to techniques described in the ATT&CK framework under the "Resource Exhaustion" tactic, where adversaries consume system resources to deny service to legitimate users. The flaw demonstrates a failure in the principle of least privilege and resource isolation that should be fundamental to any secure multi-tenant platform. Organizations relying on Sandstorm for application deployment face significant risks including complete service disruption, performance degradation, and potential data loss when these resource limits are not properly enforced.
The mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper resource limit enforcement within the Supervisor component. System administrators should implement monitoring solutions that can detect anomalous resource consumption patterns and automatically isolate or terminate suspicious processes. Additionally, the platform should be updated to include comprehensive resource accounting and enforcement mechanisms that prevent any single application from consuming disproportionate system resources. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to verify that resource limits are properly enforced and that the sandboxing environment maintains its integrity against resource-based attacks.