CVE-2024-56200 in altair
Summary
by MITRE • 12/19/2024
Altair is a fork of Misskey v12. Affected versions lack of request validation and lack of authentication in the image proxy for compressing and resizing remote files could allow attacks that could affect availability, such as by abnormally increasing the CPU usage of the server on which this software is running or placing a heavy load on the network it is using. This issue has been fixed in v12.24Q4.1. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/19/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-56200 affects Altair, a fork of Misskey v12, and represents a critical security flaw in the image proxy functionality that could severely impact system availability and resource consumption. This vulnerability stems from insufficient request validation and authentication mechanisms within the image compression and resizing service, creating an attack surface that allows malicious actors to exploit the system's resource management capabilities. The flaw specifically targets the image proxy component responsible for processing remote files, which serves as a critical infrastructure element for handling external media content within the platform.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests through the absence of proper input validation and authentication checks when processing image requests through the proxy service. Attackers can exploit this weakness by sending malformed or excessive requests that trigger abnormal CPU usage patterns or network resource exhaustion. The lack of authentication requirements means that any external entity can directly interact with the image proxy functionality without proper authorization, amplifying the potential impact of resource exhaustion attacks. This flaw directly corresponds to CWE-20, which addresses improper input validation, and CWE-305, which deals with authentication failures. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and can be classified under ATT&CK technique T1499.001, which involves network denial of service attacks.
The operational impact of CVE-2024-56200 extends beyond simple resource consumption issues to potentially cause complete service disruption for affected systems. When exploited, the vulnerability can cause abnormal CPU usage spikes that may lead to system instability, application crashes, or complete service outages. Network bandwidth can also become heavily consumed as attackers send multiple concurrent requests to the image proxy service, creating a denial of service condition that affects legitimate users. The attack vector specifically targets the image compression and resizing functionality, which typically consumes significant computational resources, making this exploitation particularly effective for causing availability issues. Organizations running affected versions of Altair may experience cascading failures as system resources become overwhelmed, potentially affecting other services running on the same infrastructure.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2024-56200 require immediate action to address the root cause through proper system upgrades. The vulnerability has been resolved in Altair version v12.24Q4.1, which includes enhanced request validation and authentication mechanisms for the image proxy functionality. Security administrators should prioritize upgrading to this patched version to eliminate the exploitability of this vulnerability. The lack of known workarounds means that organizations cannot implement temporary fixes while maintaining current system configurations. Network monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual patterns in image proxy usage that might indicate exploitation attempts, and rate limiting measures should be implemented at the network level to prevent abuse of the image processing service. Additionally, organizations should review their authentication policies and ensure that all external access points to image processing services are properly secured and monitored for unauthorized usage patterns.