CVE-2020-4267 in IBM
Summary
by MITRE
IBM MQ and MQ Appliance 8.0, 9.1 LTS, and 9.1 CD could allow an authenticated user cause a denial of service due to a memory leak. IBM X-Force ID: 175840.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/02/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-4267 affects IBM MQ and MQ Appliance versions 8.0, 9.1 LTS, and 9.1 CD, representing a significant security concern that impacts organizations relying on IBM's messaging infrastructure. This memory leak vulnerability specifically targets authenticated users, meaning that only individuals with valid credentials can exploit the flaw, though this still represents a substantial risk given that legitimate users typically possess the necessary access rights within enterprise environments. The vulnerability falls under the category of denial of service attacks, where the malicious use of system resources leads to service disruption and potential system unavailability. The IBM X-Force ID 175840 further validates the severity and tracking of this particular vulnerability within the broader security community.
The technical flaw manifests as a memory leak within the IBM MQ messaging system, where allocated memory is not properly released during normal operation cycles. This memory consumption issue typically occurs during message processing or connection handling operations within the messaging infrastructure. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the system resource level, where memory exhaustion can lead to cascading failures throughout the messaging infrastructure. When memory is continuously consumed without proper garbage collection or resource deallocation, the system gradually degrades in performance until eventually reaching a state where new connections cannot be established or existing connections fail. The authenticated nature of the attack means that an attacker must have valid login credentials, but this requirement is often achievable through various social engineering, credential theft, or insider threat scenarios.
The operational impact of CVE-2020-4267 extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise business continuity and operational stability. Organizations using IBM MQ for critical messaging operations may experience intermittent service outages, increased system response times, and potential complete service failures if the memory leak continues unchecked. The vulnerability affects both the standard IBM MQ server implementations and the specialized MQ Appliance hardware, indicating a fundamental flaw in the core messaging engine that impacts multiple deployment scenarios. This memory leak can accumulate over time, making the impact more severe during extended periods of operation or high message volume periods. The authenticated requirement does not significantly reduce the risk since legitimate users typically maintain persistent connections and may be unaware of their system being compromised by malicious activity.
Security mitigations for CVE-2020-4267 should focus on both immediate remediation and long-term monitoring strategies. Organizations should prioritize applying the official IBM security patches and updates that address this specific memory leak vulnerability. System administrators should implement monitoring solutions that track memory usage patterns and set alerts for unusual consumption trends that may indicate exploitation attempts. Access controls and privilege management should be reviewed to ensure that only necessary users have access to IBM MQ systems, reducing the potential attack surface. Network segmentation and monitoring of MQ traffic can help detect anomalous behavior that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-401, which specifically addresses improper deallocation of memory, and could be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 related to network denial of service attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing automated system restart procedures for MQ services to mitigate the impact of memory exhaustion and establish regular maintenance windows to address potential memory leak accumulation.