CVE-2023-41707 in OX App Suite
Summary
by MITRE • 02/12/2024
Processing of user-defined mail search expressions is not limited. Availability of OX App Suite could be reduced due to high processing load. Please deploy the provided updates and patch releases. Processing time of mail search expressions now gets monitored, and the related request is terminated if a resource threshold is reached. No publicly available exploits are known.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/18/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-41707 represents a significant security flaw in the OX App Suite email platform that could lead to denial of service conditions. This weakness stems from inadequate limitations on user-defined mail search expressions, creating a scenario where malicious or malformed search queries could consume excessive system resources. The vulnerability operates at the application level and specifically targets the mail search functionality within the OX App Suite environment, potentially allowing attackers to exploit the system's processing capabilities through crafted search parameters.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the lack of proper input validation and resource management within the mail search processing engine. When users submit search expressions, the system fails to enforce reasonable limits on processing time or resource consumption, enabling a single search operation to consume disproportionate system resources. This design flaw falls under the category of insufficient resource management and inadequate input validation, which are commonly classified under CWE-770 and CWE-771 respectively. The vulnerability creates a path for resource exhaustion attacks where an attacker can submit complex or malformed search queries that cause the system to allocate excessive CPU cycles and memory resources.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses a substantial risk to system availability and service integrity within OX App Suite deployments. The high processing load generated by unbounded search expressions can lead to complete service degradation or unavailability, affecting all users within the affected system. The system's ability to handle legitimate search requests diminishes as malicious queries consume resources, potentially creating cascading effects that impact overall system performance. This vulnerability directly impacts the availability aspect of the CIA triad and can be classified under ATT&CK technique T1499.1 for resource exhaustion attacks. The threat landscape for this vulnerability includes both malicious actors seeking to disrupt services and potentially automated attack tools that could systematically exploit the resource consumption issue.
The vendor has addressed this vulnerability through the implementation of enhanced monitoring and resource threshold controls for mail search operations. The updated solution introduces request monitoring capabilities that track processing time and resource utilization during search operations. When predefined resource thresholds are exceeded, the system automatically terminates the related search request to prevent further resource consumption. This mitigation approach aligns with defensive programming practices and resource management best practices recommended by industry standards. The patch deployment represents a reactive security measure that addresses the specific resource exhaustion vector while maintaining system functionality. Organizations should prioritize deployment of these updates as they provide immediate protection against the identified vulnerability and prevent potential service disruption scenarios. The solution demonstrates proper incident response and vulnerability management practices that align with security frameworks such as NIST SP 800-40 and ISO/IEC 27001 requirements for maintaining system availability and protecting against resource exhaustion attacks.