CVE-2022-22336 in Sterling External Authentication Server
Summary
by MITRE • 02/23/2022
IBM Sterling External Authentication Server and IBM Sterling Secure Proxy 6.0.3.0, 6.0.2.0, and 3.4.3.2 could allow a remote user to consume resources causing a denial of service due to a resource leak. IBM X-Force ID: 219395.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/26/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-22336 affects IBM Sterling External Authentication Server and IBM Sterling Secure Proxy versions 6.0.3.0, 6.0.2.0, and 3.4.3.2, representing a critical resource leak issue that can be exploited remotely to cause denial of service conditions. This vulnerability resides within IBM's authentication and proxy infrastructure components that are widely deployed in enterprise environments for securing external authentication processes and managing secure proxy operations. The flaw manifests as an insufficient resource management mechanism that fails to properly release allocated system resources during normal operational cycles, creating a persistent consumption pattern that gradually depletes available system capacity.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves improper handling of resource allocation within the authentication and proxy processing pipelines. When remote users interact with the affected systems through legitimate authentication or proxy operations, the software fails to correctly manage memory allocations, file handles, or connection resources. This resource leak occurs during the processing of authentication requests or proxy transactions where allocated system resources are not properly deallocated upon completion of operations. The vulnerability is classified as a resource leak under CWE-404, which specifically addresses improper resource management leading to resource exhaustion. The flaw operates at the application layer where authentication and proxy services are processed, making it particularly dangerous as it can be triggered through normal operational traffic patterns without requiring privileged access or specialized attack vectors.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates significant business continuity risks for organizations relying on IBM Sterling products for their authentication and secure proxy requirements. The resource consumption pattern gradually depletes system resources including memory, file descriptors, and connection handles, eventually leading to complete system unresponsiveness or service disruption. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by sending carefully crafted authentication requests or proxy operations that trigger the resource leak behavior, causing progressive degradation of system performance until complete denial of service occurs. The impact extends beyond simple service interruption as the resource exhaustion can affect other applications sharing the same system resources, potentially creating cascading failures within the broader IT infrastructure. The vulnerability affects both the external authentication server and secure proxy components, meaning organizations may experience service disruption across multiple security control points simultaneously.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant IBM security patches and updates that address the resource leak behavior in the affected software versions. System administrators should monitor resource utilization patterns closely and implement automated alerting for unusual resource consumption trends that may indicate exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and access controls should be enhanced to limit exposure of affected systems to untrusted networks while implementing rate limiting and connection monitoring to detect abnormal usage patterns. The remediation process should include thorough testing of patched systems in controlled environments before deployment to production systems to ensure compatibility with existing configurations. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing intrusion detection systems that can identify patterns consistent with resource leak exploitation attempts and maintain comprehensive monitoring of authentication and proxy service performance metrics to quickly detect and respond to potential exploitation events. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 which covers network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion, making it a critical target for defensive security operations and incident response procedures.