CVE-2019-0564 in ASP.NET Core
Summary
by MITRE
A denial of service vulnerability exists when ASP.NET Core improperly handles web requests, aka "ASP.NET Core Denial of Service Vulnerability." This affects ASP.NET Core 2.1. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2019-0548.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/23/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-0564 represents a critical denial of service weakness within the ASP.NET Core framework version 2.1. This flaw manifests when the web request handling mechanisms fail to properly process certain input patterns, leading to system resource exhaustion and subsequent service unavailability. The issue specifically impacts applications built on the ASP.NET Core 2.1 runtime environment, making it particularly concerning for organizations maintaining legacy systems that have not yet transitioned to newer versions. Security researchers have classified this vulnerability as a remote code execution risk due to its potential to disrupt normal application operations and compromise system availability.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper validation and processing of HTTP requests within the ASP.NET Core pipeline. When maliciously crafted requests are received by affected applications, the framework's request handling logic becomes overwhelmed with processing overhead, causing memory consumption to spike and eventually leading to application crashes or complete service termination. This behavior aligns with CWE-400, which catalogs weaknesses related to resource exhaustion in software systems. The vulnerability exploits the framework's failure to adequately sanitize incoming request data, particularly around header parsing and content handling mechanisms that are fundamental to web application communication.
The operational impact of CVE-2019-0564 extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can be leveraged by attackers to perform sustained denial of service attacks against targeted applications. Organizations running ASP.NET Core 2.1 applications become vulnerable to attacks that can cause cascading failures, especially in high-traffic environments where the system's response to malformed requests can quickly overwhelm available resources. This vulnerability directly maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which describes network denial of service attacks, and represents a significant risk for applications that do not implement proper input validation or request rate limiting mechanisms. The attack surface includes any web application that accepts HTTP requests and utilizes the affected ASP.NET Core 2.1 framework components.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily focus on immediate application updates and configuration adjustments. Microsoft released security patches for this vulnerability as part of their regular security updates, and organizations should prioritize applying the relevant patches to their ASP.NET Core 2.1 installations. Additionally, implementing request rate limiting, input validation, and monitoring mechanisms can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls and intrusion detection systems can provide additional layers of defense. Organizations should also consider implementing application-level protections that monitor for unusual request patterns and automatically terminate suspicious connections. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the importance of keeping framework components updated and implementing robust security practices in web application development and deployment environments.