CVE-2018-1997 in Business Automation Workflow
Summary
by MITRE
IBM Business Automation Workflow and Business Process Manager 18.0.0.0, 18.0.0.1, and 18.0.0.2 are vulnerable to a denial of service attack. An authenticated attacker might send a specially crafted request that exhausts server-side memory. IBM X-Force ID: 154774.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/27/2023
IBM Business Automation Workflow and Business Process Manager versions 18.0.0.0 through 18.0.0.2 contain a critical vulnerability that allows authenticated attackers to execute denial of service attacks through memory exhaustion. This vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation mechanisms within the application's request processing pipeline, where specially crafted requests can trigger uncontrolled memory consumption patterns. The flaw manifests when the system processes malformed or oversized data structures that are not properly sanitized before being processed by the underlying runtime environment. Attackers with valid credentials can exploit this weakness by submitting requests that cause the application server to allocate excessive memory resources without proper cleanup mechanisms. The vulnerability directly maps to CWE-400, which categorizes unchecked resource consumption as a fundamental weakness in resource management. From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risk to business continuity as it can render the entire workflow automation platform unavailable to legitimate users. The memory exhaustion occurs at the application layer, affecting the Java Virtual Machine heap space and potentially causing JVM crashes or garbage collection overhead that degrades overall system performance. The impact extends beyond simple service disruption as it can affect concurrent users and process execution, leading to cascading failures in automated business processes that organizations depend upon for critical operations. Organizations utilizing these IBM products face potential business disruption and increased operational overhead when this vulnerability is exploited. The attack vector requires authentication, which limits the scope to internal threat actors or compromised user accounts, but this does not diminish the severity of the impact. The vulnerability demonstrates poor defensive programming practices where input validation and resource allocation limits are not properly enforced, creating an attack surface that can be leveraged for persistent service degradation. IBM has addressed this vulnerability through patches and updates to the affected versions, emphasizing the importance of timely security maintenance. The remediation process requires careful deployment planning due to the critical nature of workflow automation platforms and their integration with enterprise business processes. Organizations should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion, and represents a classic example of how insufficient input validation can lead to system instability. The affected systems typically include application servers running IBM WebSphere Application Server, where the memory exhaustion occurs during request processing and can be triggered through various API endpoints. Security teams should prioritize this vulnerability for remediation as it provides a straightforward path to service disruption without requiring advanced exploitation techniques. The vulnerability also highlights the need for proper application-level resource management and the implementation of defensive measures such as request size limits and memory allocation monitoring to prevent similar issues in other components of the business automation ecosystem.