CVE-2017-8977 in Moonshot Provisioning Manager Appliance
Summary
by MITRE
A Remote Denial of Service vulnerability in Hewlett Packard Enterprise Moonshot Provisioning Manager Appliance version v1.20 was found.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/04/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-8977 represents a critical remote denial of service flaw within the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Moonshot Provisioning Manager Appliance version v1.20. This appliance serves as a centralized management platform for HP Moonshot infrastructure, enabling administrators to provision, configure, and manage large-scale server deployments. The vulnerability resides in the appliance's handling of incoming network requests and processing of specific input parameters, creating an exploitable condition that can be leveraged by remote attackers to disrupt service availability. The affected system operates as a web-based management interface that processes configuration data and provisioning commands from remote clients, making it a prime target for denial of service attacks that could compromise the entire provisioning infrastructure.
Technical analysis reveals that the vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and error handling mechanisms within the appliance's web server component. When processing malformed or specially crafted requests, the system fails to properly sanitize incoming data, leading to a condition where malformed HTTP requests or improperly formatted provisioning commands can trigger unexpected behavior in the application's processing pipeline. This flaw manifests as the appliance becoming unresponsive or crashing entirely, resulting in complete service disruption for legitimate users attempting to access the provisioning manager. The vulnerability specifically affects the application's REST API endpoints and web interface handlers, where insufficient bounds checking and resource management practices allow attackers to exploit memory corruption or resource exhaustion conditions that ultimately lead to system instability.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service interruption, as it directly affects the availability of critical infrastructure management capabilities within HP Moonshot environments. Organizations relying on the provisioning manager for automated deployment and configuration of server nodes could experience significant operational downtime during an attack, potentially affecting hundreds or thousands of server instances across their data center. The remote nature of the exploit means that attackers do not require physical access or network proximity to the appliance, making it particularly dangerous in environments where network segmentation may be inadequate. This vulnerability undermines the core reliability of the provisioning infrastructure, potentially causing cascading failures when dependent systems cannot access provisioning services to maintain operational continuity.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-8977 should prioritize immediate patching of the affected appliance version to the latest available firmware releases from HP. Organizations should implement network-level controls including firewall rules that restrict access to the provisioning manager appliance to trusted administrative networks only, and consider implementing intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious traffic patterns. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-129, Input Validation, and CWE-248, Uncaught Exception, highlighting the importance of robust input sanitization and proper exception handling. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1499.004, Endpoint Denial of Service, and T1566.001, Phishing, as attackers may use social engineering to gain initial access before exploiting this service disruption vulnerability. Organizations should also implement monitoring solutions to detect abnormal resource consumption patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, and maintain regular backup procedures to ensure rapid recovery capabilities when service disruption occurs.