CVE-2019-5355 in Intelligent Management Center PLAT
Summary
by MITRE
A remote denial of service vulnerability was identified in HPE Intelligent Management Center (IMC) PLAT earlier than version 7.3 E0506P09.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/20/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-5355 represents a critical remote denial of service flaw within HPE Intelligent Management Center (IMC) PLAT software versions prior to 7.3 E0506P09. This issue affects the platform's ability to maintain consistent service availability and can be exploited remotely without authentication, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise network environments where IMC serves as a central management solution for network infrastructure. The vulnerability resides in the software's handling of specific network requests that can trigger unexpected behavior in the system's processing mechanisms.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper input validation within the IMC platform's network protocol handling components. When maliciously crafted requests are sent to the affected system, they can cause the application to enter an unstable state where it either crashes entirely or becomes unresponsive to legitimate management operations. This occurs due to insufficient bounds checking and error handling in the processing of network packets, allowing attackers to manipulate the system's internal state through carefully constructed payloads. The flaw is categorized under CWE-129 as an insufficient input validation issue, where the system fails to properly validate the range or size of incoming data before processing it.
The operational impact of CVE-2019-5355 extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can compromise the integrity of network management operations across entire enterprise infrastructures. Organizations relying on IMC for critical network monitoring and management functions face potential business disruption when this vulnerability is exploited, as network administrators lose access to essential management capabilities. The remote nature of the exploit means that attackers can target these systems from outside the network perimeter, potentially leading to extended downtime and requiring immediate remediation efforts. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks, where adversaries specifically target network infrastructure to prevent legitimate users from accessing services.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of the vendor-provided security patches and updates to reach version 7.3 E0506P09 or later. Network administrators should also consider implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of IMC systems to untrusted networks. Additional defensive measures include monitoring for anomalous network traffic patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts and implementing intrusion detection systems to identify suspicious requests targeting the affected services. Organizations should also conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify any other potentially affected systems within their network infrastructure that might be running older versions of the IMC platform. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing of updated systems to ensure that the patch does not introduce compatibility issues with existing network management workflows while maintaining the required security posture against this specific denial of service threat.