CVE-2023-22819 in My Cloud OS
Summary
by MITRE • 02/06/2024
An uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability issue that could arise by sending crafted requests to a service to consume a large amount of memory, eventually resulting in the service being stopped and restarted was discovered in Western Digital My Cloud Home, My Cloud Home Duo, SanDisk ibi and Western Digital My Cloud OS 5 devices. This issue requires the attacker to already have root privileges in order to exploit this vulnerability. This issue affects My Cloud Home and My Cloud Home Duo: before 9.5.1-104; ibi: before 9.5.1-104; My Cloud OS 5: before 5.27.161.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/06/2024
This vulnerability represents a significant resource exhaustion threat targeting Western Digital and SanDisk cloud storage devices running My Cloud OS 5. The issue manifests through carefully crafted requests that trigger excessive memory consumption, ultimately leading to service disruption and system restarts. The vulnerability is classified as an uncontrolled resource consumption flaw, which aligns with CWE-400 - Uncontrolled Resource Consumption and falls under the broader category of denial of service attacks. The attack vector requires pre-existing root privileges, indicating this represents an escalation vulnerability rather than an initial access vector, suggesting it could be exploited by malicious insiders or compromised administrators.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves sending specially crafted requests that cause the affected services to allocate excessive memory resources without proper bounds checking or resource limits. This type of memory exhaustion attack can be particularly dangerous in embedded systems and network-attached storage devices where system stability is critical for continuous operation. The affected devices include Western Digital My Cloud Home and My Cloud Home Duo models, as well as SanDisk ibi devices, all running versions prior to 9.5.1-104 for the My Cloud Home products and 5.27.161 for My Cloud OS 5. The requirement for root privileges indicates that exploitation would typically occur through privilege escalation techniques or by compromising an existing administrative account, making this vulnerability particularly concerning in environments where administrative access is not properly secured.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can lead to complete system unavailability and potential data integrity concerns during restart operations. Storage devices are expected to maintain continuous availability, and this vulnerability could be exploited to create persistent service interruptions that affect data access and backup operations. The memory consumption patterns suggest that the vulnerability may involve memory leaks or infinite loops in request processing, where the system fails to properly release allocated memory resources. This type of vulnerability is particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where storage systems serve as critical infrastructure components and any service interruption could result in significant operational downtime and potential data loss.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper access controls and privilege management to prevent unauthorized root access, as well as applying the vendor-provided security updates that address this specific resource consumption issue. The recommended approach includes upgrading to the patched versions 9.5.1-104 for My Cloud Home products and 5.27.161 for My Cloud OS 5, which should contain proper resource limits and bounds checking mechanisms. Network segmentation and monitoring should be implemented to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, implementing runtime protections such as memory allocation limits and automated service restart policies can help minimize the impact of successful exploitation attempts. This vulnerability also highlights the importance of maintaining secure administrative practices and following the principle of least privilege, as the requirement for root access means that proper access control is fundamental to preventing exploitation. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under privilege escalation and denial of service tactics, emphasizing the need for comprehensive security measures that address both access control and resource management aspects of system security.