CVE-2018-2438 in Internet Graphics Server
Summary
by MITRE
The SAP Internet Graphics Server (IGS), 7.20, 7.20EXT, 7.45, 7.49, 7.53, has several denial-of-service vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to prevent legitimate users from accessing a service, either by crashing or flooding the service.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/02/2020
The SAP Internet Graphics Server IGS vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-2438 represents a critical denial-of-service weakness affecting multiple versions of the SAP IGS software including 7.20, 7.20EXT, 7.45, 7.49, and 7.53. This vulnerability resides within the graphics processing components of SAP's enterprise software ecosystem and specifically targets the Internet Graphics Server functionality that handles image rendering and display operations for web-based applications. The flaw allows malicious actors to exploit the service in ways that disrupt normal operations and prevent authorized users from accessing critical business applications that depend on proper graphics rendering capabilities.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and resource management within the IGS processing pipeline. Attackers can craft specially malformed or excessively large graphic requests that cause the server to either crash or become unresponsive during processing. These attacks typically involve sending malformed image data or exploiting buffer overflow conditions in the graphics handling code that processes incoming requests. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-400 which specifically addresses unchecked resource consumption, where the server fails to properly validate or limit the size and complexity of graphic requests that can be processed. The IGS service does not adequately implement rate limiting or request sanitization mechanisms, making it susceptible to both simple flooding attacks and more sophisticated resource exhaustion techniques.
From an operational perspective, the impact of CVE-2018-2438 can be devastating for enterprise environments relying on SAP applications for business-critical operations. When the IGS service becomes unavailable due to denial-of-service attacks, users experience complete disruption of graphic-intensive applications such as SAP Fiori interfaces, business intelligence dashboards, and web-based reporting tools. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely without requiring authentication, making it particularly dangerous in production environments where the IGS service is exposed to external networks. Organizations may experience significant downtime, loss of productivity, and potential revenue impact when legitimate business processes are interrupted by these attacks. The service disruption affects not only end-user access but can also impact backend integration processes that depend on proper graphics rendering for data visualization and reporting functions.
The attack surface for this vulnerability aligns with the ATT&CK framework's privilege escalation and denial-of-service tactics, where adversaries can leverage the weakness to gain persistent access to service disruption capabilities. Network-based attacks can be executed through simple HTTP requests or by crafting malicious image files that trigger the vulnerable code paths. The vulnerability also presents opportunities for advanced persistent threat actors to use it as a foothold for broader network infiltration. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to isolate IGS services, firewall rules to limit access to trusted sources, and monitoring systems to detect unusual request patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. SAP released patches addressing the specific resource management flaws in affected versions, and organizations should prioritize applying these updates while implementing additional defensive measures such as intrusion detection systems and comprehensive logging of graphics processing activities to detect potential exploitation attempts.