CVE-2019-19396 in illumos
Summary
by MITRE
illumos, as used in OmniOS Community Edition before r151030y, allows a kernel crash via an application with multiple threads calling sendmsg concurrently over a single socket, because uts/common/inet/ip/ip_attr.c mishandles conn_ixa dereferences.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/05/2024
This vulnerability exists in the illumos operating system kernel implementation within the OmniOS Community Edition distribution prior to version r151030y. The flaw manifests when multiple threads concurrently execute sendmsg system calls over a single socket connection, leading to a kernel panic and system crash. The root cause resides in the ip_attr.c file within the uts/common/inet/ip directory, where the kernel fails to properly handle dereferences of conn_ixa structures during concurrent access scenarios. This represents a classic race condition vulnerability that exploits improper synchronization mechanisms in kernel space operations.
The technical implementation involves a concurrency issue within the network stack's connection attribute handling code path. When multiple threads simultaneously invoke sendmsg operations on the same socket, the kernel's internal conn_ixa structure management becomes corrupted due to lack of proper locking mechanisms. This memory management flaw causes the kernel to attempt invalid memory accesses or corrupted pointer dereferences, ultimately resulting in a kernel crash that terminates the entire system operation. The vulnerability specifically targets the ip_attr.c file which handles IP connection attributes and requires careful examination of how connection state information is managed during concurrent network operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it can be exploited to cause denial of service attacks against systems running affected OmniOS versions. An attacker only needs to create multiple threads that concurrently send data over a single socket connection to trigger the kernel crash. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in production environments where system stability is critical, as it can be leveraged to disrupt network services or cause complete system outages. The vulnerability affects systems that rely on concurrent socket operations, making it relevant to web servers, database systems, and any network-intensive applications that may utilize multiple threads for sending data over the same socket connection.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate patching of the OmniOS system to version r151030y or later where the kernel concurrency handling has been corrected. Organizations should also implement monitoring for unusual network connection patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, as well as ensure proper system hardening measures are in place. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-362, which describes race conditions in concurrent programming, and relates to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. Additionally, this vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper kernel memory management and concurrent access control mechanisms that are essential for maintaining system stability in multi-threaded environments. System administrators should also consider implementing connection rate limiting and monitoring for unusual concurrent socket activity to detect potential exploitation attempts before they can cause system crashes.