CVE-2019-19337 in Ceph Storage
Summary
by MITRE
A flaw was found in Red Hat Ceph Storage version 3 in the way the Ceph RADOS Gateway daemon handles S3 requests. An authenticated attacker can abuse this flaw by causing a remote denial of service by sending a specially crafted HTTP Content-Length header to the Ceph RADOS Gateway server.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/24/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-19337 resides within Red Hat Ceph Storage version 3's Ceph RADOS Gateway daemon implementation, specifically affecting the S3 protocol handling mechanism. This flaw represents a critical security weakness that demonstrates poor input validation and resource management within the gateway's HTTP request processing pipeline. The issue manifests when the daemon encounters specially crafted HTTP Content-Length headers during S3 request processing, creating a scenario where legitimate authenticated users can exploit this weakness to disrupt service availability.
This vulnerability operates through a classic denial of service vector that exploits the gateway's insufficient validation of HTTP headers, particularly focusing on the Content-Length field. The flaw enables an attacker to manipulate the gateway's memory allocation and processing behavior by submitting malformed Content-Length values that cause the daemon to enter an unstable state. The weakness stems from inadequate bounds checking and improper handling of header values within the HTTP request parsing logic, creating a condition where the daemon's resource management becomes compromised. The attack requires only authentication to the S3 interface, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by authorized users with legitimate access credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise the entire storage cluster's availability and reliability. When exploited successfully, the flaw can cause the Ceph RADOS Gateway daemon to crash or become unresponsive, leading to complete denial of service for S3-compatible applications and clients that depend on the storage infrastructure. This disruption affects not only the immediate availability of stored data but also impacts any applications relying on the storage cluster's S3 compatibility layer for data operations. The vulnerability's effect is amplified in production environments where continuous availability and data access are critical for business operations.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2019-19337 should prioritize immediate patching of affected Red Hat Ceph Storage installations to address the underlying input validation weakness. Organizations should implement network-level monitoring to detect anomalous Content-Length header patterns and establish automated alerting for suspicious HTTP request behaviors. Security teams should also consider implementing rate limiting and request validation mechanisms at the gateway level to prevent exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-129, which addresses improper validation of array indices and buffer overflows, and relates to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough testing of patched environments to ensure that legitimate S3 operations remain unaffected while the vulnerability is addressed.