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F5 Networks BIG-IP : Excess resource consumption due to low MSS values vulnerability (K35421172)

high Nessus Plugin ID 129313

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Synopsis

The remote device is missing a vendor-supplied security patch.

Description

Jonathan Looney discovered that the Linux kernel default MSS is hard-coded to 48 bytes. This allows a remote peer to fragment TCP resend queues significantly more than if a larger MSS were enforced. A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of service. This has been fixed in stable kernel releases 4.4.182, 4.9.182, 4.14.127, 4.19.52, 5.1.11, and is fixed in commits 967c05aee439e6e5d7d805e195b3a20ef5c433d6 and 5f3e2bf008c2221478101ee72f5cb4654b9fc363. (CVE-2019-11479)

The Linux kernel is vulnerable to a flaw that allows attackers sending crafted packets with low maximum segment size (MSS) values to trigger excessive resource consumption.

Impact

BIG-IP

The BIG-IP system has no exposure to this vulnerability within the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM), including virtual servers and virtual IP addresses (also known as the data plane). However, the BIG-IP system is vulnerable via the self IP addresses and the management interface (also known as the control plane). A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of service (DoS) by sending a sequence of specially crafted TCP packets.

Backend systems accessed via a FastL4 virtual server

By its nature as a full-proxy, the BIG-IP system protects backend systems accessed through a standard virtual server, as any attacker's TCP connection would be terminated at the BIG-IP system. However, backend systems accessed via a FastL4 virtual server(a virtual server configured with a FastL4 profile) are exposed by default as the attack traffic is forwarded as-is to the backend system.

Traffix SDC

A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to cause a DoS by sending a sequence of specially crafted TCP packets.

Solution

Upgrade to one of the non-vulnerable versions listed in the F5 Solution K35421172.

See Also

https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K35421172

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 129313

File Name: f5_bigip_SOL35421172.nasl

Version: 1.8

Type: local

Published: 9/25/2019

Updated: 11/3/2023

Configuration: Enable paranoid mode

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2019-11479

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_link_controller, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_application_visibility_and_reporting, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_domain_name_system, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_policy_enforcement_manager, cpe:/h:f5:big-ip, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_application_security_manager, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_advanced_firewall_manager, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_local_traffic_manager, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_access_policy_manager, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_global_traffic_manager, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_application_acceleration_manager, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_webaccelerator

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Settings/ParanoidReport, Host/BIG-IP/hotfix, Host/BIG-IP/modules, Host/BIG-IP/version

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/19/2019

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/19/2019

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2019-11479