CVE-2019-1644 in IoT Field Network Director
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability in the UDP protocol implementation for Cisco IoT Field Network Director (IoT-FND) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to exhaust system resources, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to improper resource management for UDP ingress packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of UDP packets to an affected system within a short period of time. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to exhaust available system resources, resulting in a DoS condition.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/03/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-1644 resides within the UDP protocol implementation of Cisco IoT Field Network Director, a critical component designed for managing and monitoring Internet of Things deployments in field environments. This device serves as a central hub for IoT network operations, making it a prime target for malicious actors seeking to disrupt critical infrastructure. The flaw manifests in the system's inadequate resource management mechanisms when processing incoming UDP traffic, creating a pathway for exploitation that directly impacts the device's operational integrity and availability.
This vulnerability represents a classic resource exhaustion attack vector where the IoT-FND device fails to properly validate and manage incoming UDP packets, leading to a scenario where malicious actors can overwhelm system resources through sustained high-volume UDP traffic. The improper resource management stems from insufficient rate limiting, packet filtering, or memory allocation controls that should normally protect against such attacks. The attack requires no authentication credentials, making it particularly dangerous as any remote individual can initiate the exploit without prior access privileges. The exploitation technique involves flooding the device with UDP packets at a rapid rate, effectively consuming available memory, CPU cycles, and network bandwidth resources.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise entire IoT deployments that rely on the Field Network Director for network management and monitoring. When system resources are exhausted, the device becomes unresponsive and unable to process legitimate network traffic, creating cascading failures throughout the connected IoT ecosystem. This DoS condition can persist until manual intervention occurs, requiring system restarts or administrative intervention to restore normal operations. The attack's effectiveness is amplified by the fact that IoT environments often operate with minimal redundancy and monitoring, making such disruptions particularly damaging to critical infrastructure operations.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2019-1644 should focus on implementing network-level protections such as UDP rate limiting, packet filtering rules, and ingress traffic monitoring to detect and prevent abnormal traffic patterns. Network administrators should configure firewalls to limit UDP traffic to essential ports only and implement intrusion detection systems to monitor for unusual traffic spikes. Cisco has released patches and updates addressing this vulnerability through their security advisory process, emphasizing the importance of timely software updates for maintaining network security. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which categorizes resource exhaustion issues, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks, highlighting the need for comprehensive defensive measures including network segmentation, traffic monitoring, and regular security assessments to prevent exploitation of such fundamental protocol implementation flaws.