CVE-2024-8451 in GS-4210-24PL4C Hardware 2.0
Summary
by MITRE • 09/30/2024
Certain switch models from PLANET Technology have an SSH service that improperly handles insufficiently authenticated connection requests, allowing unauthorized remote attackers to exploit this weakness to occupy connection slots and prevent legitimate users from accessing the SSH service.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/05/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-8451 affects specific switch models manufactured by PLANET Technology and represents a significant security weakness in the SSH service implementation. This flaw resides in the authentication handling mechanisms of the network switch's secure shell service, where the system fails to properly manage connection requests from unauthenticated users. The issue manifests when attackers exploit the insufficiently validated connection attempts to consume available SSH service slots, creating a denial of service condition that prevents legitimate users from establishing valid connections to the device.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability demonstrates poor resource management and authentication flow control within the SSH daemon implementation. The switch's SSH service does not adequately validate or rate-limit connection attempts from users who fail to provide proper authentication credentials. This allows malicious actors to continuously establish connection requests without proper authentication, gradually exhausting the available connection slots or threads that the SSH service can handle simultaneously. The flaw operates at the protocol level where the service should enforce proper authentication before allocating resources for connection handling, but instead permits resource consumption regardless of authentication status.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to create potential security risks for network infrastructure management. Legitimate network administrators who require SSH access to configure or monitor the affected switches may find their access blocked by the malicious connection exhaustion, potentially leading to extended network downtime and operational disruption. The vulnerability particularly affects network environments where switch management is critical for maintaining network operations, as unauthorized actors can effectively lock out authorized personnel from performing essential maintenance or troubleshooting tasks.
This weakness aligns with CWE-307, which addresses improper restriction of excessive authenticated or unauthenticated connections to a resource, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with the attack pattern described in MITRE ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. The vulnerability enables attackers to perform resource exhaustion attacks against the SSH service, which can be executed remotely without requiring privileged access to the device itself. Organizations should consider implementing network segmentation and access control measures to limit exposure to such attacks, while also ensuring that SSH services on network infrastructure devices are properly configured with appropriate connection limits and authentication requirements.
Mitigation strategies should include immediate firmware updates from PLANET Technology to address the authentication handling flaw, implementation of SSH connection rate limiting on network firewalls, and configuration of access control lists to restrict SSH access to known trusted IP addresses. Network administrators should also establish monitoring procedures to detect unusual connection patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, and implement proper logging of SSH connection attempts to aid in forensic analysis. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing alternative management protocols with stronger authentication mechanisms or using VPN solutions to provide secure access to switch management interfaces, thereby reducing the attack surface exposed to direct SSH access.