CVE-2020-4581 in DataPower Gateway
Summary
by MITRE
IBM DataPower Gateway 2018.4.1.0 through 2018.4.1.12 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service by sending a chunked transfer-encoding HTTP/2 request. IBM X-Force ID: 184441.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/22/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-4581 affects IBM DataPower Gateway versions 2018.4.1.0 through 2018.4.1.12, representing a critical denial of service weakness that can be exploited remotely. This flaw specifically targets the gateway's handling of HTTP/2 requests that utilize chunked transfer-encoding, a standard method for transmitting data in web communications where the data is sent in chunks rather than as a single block. The vulnerability creates a potential attack vector where an unauthenticated remote adversary can craft malicious HTTP/2 requests to disrupt service availability.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation within the DataPower Gateway's HTTP/2 processing engine. When the system receives a specially crafted chunked transfer-encoding HTTP/2 request, the gateway fails to properly handle the malformed data structure, leading to system instability and subsequent service disruption. This behavior aligns with CWE-400, which catalogs weaknesses related to resource exhaustion and improper handling of input data. The flaw operates at the protocol processing layer where HTTP/2 connections are managed, making it particularly dangerous as it can affect the entire gateway's ability to process legitimate requests.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can potentially affect business continuity and system availability for organizations relying on DataPower Gateway for API management, security enforcement, and traffic handling. Attackers can exploit this weakness without requiring authentication credentials, making it particularly concerning for environments where the gateway is exposed to untrusted networks or the internet. The vulnerability affects the gateway's ability to maintain stable connections and process legitimate traffic, which can cascade into broader service degradation across dependent systems that rely on DataPower for traffic management and security enforcement.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patches and updates released by IBM to address this vulnerability. Network segmentation and access controls should be strengthened to limit exposure of the affected gateway to untrusted networks. Monitoring solutions should be enhanced to detect unusual patterns in HTTP/2 traffic that might indicate exploitation attempts. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under T1499 which covers network denial of service attacks, and organizations should consider implementing defensive measures such as rate limiting and connection monitoring to detect and prevent exploitation attempts. Additionally, implementing proper input validation and boundary checking mechanisms within the gateway configuration can help reduce the attack surface and provide additional defense in depth measures against similar vulnerabilities.