CVE-2024-45796 in Suricata
Summary
by MITRE • 10/16/2024
Suricata is a network Intrusion Detection System, Intrusion Prevention System and Network Security Monitoring engine. Prior to version 7.0.7, a logic error during fragment reassembly can lead to failed reassembly for valid traffic. An attacker could craft packets to trigger this behavior.This issue has been addressed in 7.0.7.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/16/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-45796 affects Suricata, a widely deployed network intrusion detection system that functions as both an intrusion prevention system and network security monitoring engine. This flaw resides in the fragment reassembly logic within Suricata's packet processing pipeline, representing a critical weakness that could compromise network security monitoring capabilities. The vulnerability specifically impacts versions prior to 7.0.7, indicating that organizations running older versions of this security tool face potential exposure to sophisticated attacks targeting the network infrastructure. Suricata's role in network security makes this vulnerability particularly concerning as it could allow attackers to evade detection mechanisms while legitimate network traffic experiences disruption.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from a logic error during the fragment reassembly process, which is a fundamental component of network protocol handling. When network packets exceed the maximum transmission unit size, they are fragmented and must be correctly reassembled for proper inspection. The flaw in Suricata's implementation causes valid network traffic fragments to fail during the reassembly phase, leading to potential packet loss and disruption of network monitoring. This logic error creates a condition where the system cannot properly reconstruct legitimate network traffic, effectively creating a blind spot in network monitoring capabilities. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because attackers can craft specific packet sequences designed to trigger this reassembly failure, exploiting the underlying flaw to either bypass detection or cause legitimate traffic disruption.
The operational impact of CVE-2024-45796 extends beyond simple packet loss, potentially allowing adversaries to exploit the system's failure to properly handle valid network traffic. When legitimate fragments fail to reassemble correctly, network security monitoring systems may miss critical threat indicators or fail to properly analyze network behavior patterns, creating opportunities for malicious actors to conduct attacks without detection. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-691, which addresses insufficient control flow management, particularly in network protocol handling and reassembly processes. The flaw's exploitation could result in false negatives within security monitoring, where actual threats pass undetected through the system, while legitimate network traffic experiences disruption that may impact business operations and network performance. Organizations relying on Suricata for security monitoring face potential compromise of their network visibility and threat detection capabilities.
The remediation for this vulnerability requires immediate deployment of Suricata version 7.0.7 or later, which contains the necessary fixes to address the fragment reassembly logic error. Security administrators should conduct thorough testing of the updated version in controlled environments before full deployment to ensure compatibility with existing network configurations and monitoring rules. Organizations should also implement comprehensive network monitoring to detect any potential impact from the vulnerability before patching, as the failure to reassemble fragments could manifest in various network behavior patterns that may be difficult to distinguish from actual attacks. The fix addresses the underlying control flow management issue that caused the reassembly failures, restoring proper handling of fragmented network traffic and maintaining the integrity of network security monitoring operations. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining current security tool versions and highlights the potential for seemingly benign protocol handling flaws to create significant security gaps in network defense systems.