Docker up to 18.08 dockerd daemon/daemon_unix.go resource consumption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as problematic has been detected in Docker up to 18.08. The affected element is an unknown function of the file daemon/daemon_unix.go of the component dockerd. The manipulation leads to resource consumption. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2018-20699. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Docker up to 18.08 (Virtualization Software) and classified as problematic. This issue affects some unknown functionality of the file daemon/daemon_unix.go of the component dockerd. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a resource consumption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-400. The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

Docker Engine before 18.09 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (dockerd memory consumption) via a large integer in a --cpuset-mems or --cpuset-cpus value, related to daemon/daemon_unix.go, pkg/parsers/parsers.go, and pkg/sysinfo/sysinfo.go.

The bug was discovered 10/08/2018. The weakness was disclosed 01/12/2019 (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2018-20699 since 01/11/2019. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. A simple authentication is required for exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1499 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 95 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $5k-$25k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 121488 (Fedora 28 : 2:docker-latest (2019-723711c645)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Fedora Local Security Checks and running in the context l. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 277648 (Fedora Security Update for docker-latest.git1185cfd (FEDORA-2019-723711c645)).

Upgrading to version 18.09 eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published 3 weeks after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (121488). The entries VDB-108877 and VDB-120505 are pretty similar. Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Virtualization Software

Name

• Docker

Version

• 18.08

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Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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