CVE-2021-28651

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Last Modified: UTC

Description

An input validation flaw was found in Squid. This issue could allow a malicious server in collaboration with a trusted client to consume arbitrarily large amounts of memory on the server running Squid. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.

An input validation flaw was found in Squid. This issue could allow a malicious server in collaboration with a trusted client to consume arbitrarily large amounts of memory on the server running Squid. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.

Statement

This issue has been rated as having a security impact of Moderate. At this stage in their life, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 only accept Important and Critical Security Advisories (RHSAs) and this flaw does not meet these criteria. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata. Red Hat Satellite does not ship the Squid package, however, does consume it from RHEL 7 repository. Product is not affected by this flaw as squid.conf configuration disables all the http_access fragments except the localhost.

This issue has been rated as having a security impact of Moderate. At this stage in their life, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 only accept Important and Critical Security Advisories (RHSAs) and this flaw does not meet these criteria. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata.

Red Hat Satellite does not ship the Squid package, however, does consume it from RHEL 7 repository. Product is not affected by this flaw as squid.conf configuration disables all the http_access fragments except the localhost.

Mitigation

If possible, disable URN processing by adding the following lines in `squid.conf`:

acl URN proto URN
http_access deny URN

Additional information

  • Bugzilla 1962243: squid: denial of service in URN processing
  • CWE-401->CWE-400: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime leads to Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • FAQ: Frequently asked questions about CVE-2021-28651

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
Red HatNVD

CVSS v3 Base Score

7.4

7.5

Attack Vector

Network

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Low

Privileges Required

None

None

User Interaction

Required

None

Scope

Changed

Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact

None

None

Integrity Impact

None

None

Availability Impact

High

High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

CWE-401

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Instability; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)

Most memory leaks result in general product reliability problems, but if an attacker can intentionally trigger a memory leak, the attacker might be able to launch a denial of service attack (by crashing or hanging the program) or take advantage of other unexpected program behavior resulting from a low memory condition.

Other

Technical Impact: Reduce Performance

CWE-400

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

The most common result of resource exhaustion is denial of service. The product may slow down, crash due to unhandled errors, or lock out legitimate users.

Access Control,Other

Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other

In some cases it may be possible to force the product to "fail open" in the event of resource exhaustion. The state of the product -- and possibly the security functionality - may then be compromised.

Acknowledgements

Upstream acknowledges Joshua Rogers (Opera Software) as the original reporter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

What is a mitigation?

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

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