Vulnerabilities > CVE-2018-4409 - Resource Exhaustion vulnerability in Apple products

047910
CVSS 4.3 - MEDIUM
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
MEDIUM
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
NONE
Integrity impact
NONE
Availability impact
PARTIAL
network
apple
microsoft
CWE-400
nessus

Summary

A resource exhaustion issue was addressed with improved input validation. This issue affected versions prior to iOS 12.1, tvOS 12.1, Safari 12.0.1, iTunes 12.9.1, iCloud for Windows 7.8.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Apple
402
OS
Apple
241
OS
Microsoft
1

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • XML Ping of the Death
    An attacker initiates a resource depletion attack where a large number of small XML messages are delivered at a sufficiently rapid rate to cause a denial of service or crash of the target. Transactions such as repetitive SOAP transactions can deplete resources faster than a simple flooding attack because of the additional resources used by the SOAP protocol and the resources necessary to process SOAP messages. The transactions used are immaterial as long as they cause resource utilization on the target. In other words, this is a normal flooding attack augmented by using messages that will require extra processing on the target.
  • XML Entity Expansion
    An attacker submits an XML document to a target application where the XML document uses nested entity expansion to produce an excessively large output XML. XML allows the definition of macro-like structures that can be used to simplify the creation of complex structures. However, this capability can be abused to create excessive demands on a processor's CPU and memory. A small number of nested expansions can result in an exponential growth in demands on memory.
  • Inducing Account Lockout
    An attacker leverages the security functionality of the system aimed at thwarting potential attacks to launch a denial of service attack against a legitimate system user. Many systems, for instance, implement a password throttling mechanism that locks an account after a certain number of incorrect log in attempts. An attacker can leverage this throttling mechanism to lock a legitimate user out of their own account. The weakness that is being leveraged by an attacker is the very security feature that has been put in place to counteract attacks.
  • Violating Implicit Assumptions Regarding XML Content (aka XML Denial of Service (XDoS))
    XML Denial of Service (XDoS) can be applied to any technology that utilizes XML data. This is, of course, most distributed systems technology including Java, .Net, databases, and so on. XDoS is most closely associated with web services, SOAP, and Rest, because remote service requesters can post malicious XML payloads to the service provider designed to exhaust the service provider's memory, CPU, and/or disk space. The main weakness in XDoS is that the service provider generally must inspect, parse, and validate the XML messages to determine routing, workflow, security considerations, and so on. It is exactly these inspection, parsing, and validation routines that XDoS targets. There are three primary attack vectors that XDoS can navigate Target CPU through recursion: attacker creates a recursive payload and sends to service provider Target memory through jumbo payloads: service provider uses DOM to parse XML. DOM creates in memory representation of XML document, but when document is very large (for example, north of 1 Gb) service provider host may exhaust memory trying to build memory objects. XML Ping of death: attack service provider with numerous small files that clog the system. All of the above attacks exploit the loosely coupled nature of web services, where the service provider has little to no control over the service requester and any messages the service requester sends.

Nessus

  • NASL familyPeer-To-Peer File Sharing
    NASL idITUNES_12_9_1_BANNER.NASL
    descriptionThe version of Apple iTunes installed on the remote Windows host is prior to 12.9.1. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the HT209197 advisory. Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id118717
    published2018-11-02
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118717
    titleApple iTunes < 12.9.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities (uncredentialed check)
    code
    #
    # (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    #
    
    include("compat.inc");
    
    if (description)
    {
      script_id(118717);
      script_version("1.5");
      script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/11/01");
    
      script_cve_id(
        "CVE-2018-4372",
        "CVE-2018-4373",
        "CVE-2018-4374",
        "CVE-2018-4375",
        "CVE-2018-4376",
        "CVE-2018-4377",
        "CVE-2018-4378",
        "CVE-2018-4382",
        "CVE-2018-4386",
        "CVE-2018-4392",
        "CVE-2018-4394",
        "CVE-2018-4398",
        "CVE-2018-4409",
        "CVE-2018-4416"
      );
    
      script_name(english:"Apple iTunes < 12.9.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities (uncredentialed check)");
      script_summary(english:"Checks the version of iTunes on Windows.");
    
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
    "An application installed on the remote host is affected by
    multiple vulnerabilities.");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
    "The version of Apple iTunes installed on the remote Windows host is
    prior to 12.9.1. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities 
    as referenced in the HT209197 advisory.
    
    Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied
    only on the application's self-reported version number.");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT209197");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
    "Upgrade to Apple iTunes version 12.9.1 or later.");
      script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P");
      script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:POC/RL:OF/RC:C");
      script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H");
      script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2018-4416");
    
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"Exploits are available");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"true");
    
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2018/10/30");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2018/10/30");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2018/11/02");
    
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"remote");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/a:apple:itunes");
      script_end_attributes();
    
      script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
      script_family(english:"Peer-To-Peer File Sharing");
    
      script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");
    
      script_dependencies("itunes_sharing.nasl");
      script_require_keys("iTunes/sharing");
      script_require_ports("Services/www", 3689);
    
      exit(0);
    }
    
    include("audit.inc");
    include("global_settings.inc");
    include("misc_func.inc");
    include("http.inc");
    
    port = get_http_port(default:3689, embedded:TRUE, ignore_broken:TRUE);
    
    get_kb_item_or_exit("iTunes/" + port + "/enabled");
    
    type = get_kb_item_or_exit("iTunes/" + port + "/type");
    source = get_kb_item_or_exit("iTunes/" + port + "/source");
    version = get_kb_item_or_exit("iTunes/" + port + "/version");
    
    if (type != 'Windows') audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Windows");
    
    fixed_version = "12.9.1";
    
    if (ver_compare(ver:version, fix:fixed_version, strict:FALSE) < 0)
    {
      report = '\n  Version source    : ' + source +
               '\n  Installed version : ' + version +
               '\n  Fixed version     : ' + fixed_version +
               '\n';
      security_report_v4(port:port, extra:report, severity:SECURITY_WARNING);
    }
    else audit(AUDIT_LISTEN_NOT_VULN, "iTunes", port, version);
    
  • NASL familyMisc.
    NASL idAPPLETV_12_1.NASL
    descriptionAccording to its banner, the version of Apple TV on the remote device is prior to 12.1. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as described in the HT209194 security advisory. Note that only 4th generation devices are affected by these vulnerabilities.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id118712
    published2018-11-02
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118712
    titleApple TV < 12.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities
  • NASL familyWindows
    NASL idITUNES_12_9_1.NASL
    descriptionThe version of Apple iTunes installed on the remote Windows host is prior to 12.9.1. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the HT209197 advisory. Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id118718
    published2018-11-02
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118718
    titleApple iTunes < 12.9.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities (credentialed check)
  • NASL familyMacOS X Local Security Checks
    NASL idMACOSX_SAFARI12_0_1.NASL
    descriptionThe version of Apple Safari installed on the remote macOS or Mac OS X host is prior to 12.0.1. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id118571
    published2018-10-31
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118571
    titlemacOS : Apple Safari < 12.0.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities