Vulnerabilities > CVE-2018-5536 - Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager

047910
CVSS 7.5 - HIGH
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
NONE
Integrity impact
NONE
Availability impact
HIGH
network
low complexity
f5
CWE-772
nessus
NVD
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2019-10-03

Summary

A remote attacker via undisclosed measures, may be able to exploit an F5 BIG-IP APM 13.0.0-13.1.0.7 or 12.1.0-12.1.3.5 virtual server configured with an APM per-request policy object and cause a memory leak in the APM module.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
F5
30

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • HTTP DoS
    An attacker performs flooding at the HTTP level to bring down only a particular web application rather than anything listening on a TCP/IP connection. This denial of service attack requires substantially fewer packets to be sent which makes DoS harder to detect. This is an equivalent of SYN flood in HTTP. The idea is to keep the HTTP session alive indefinitely and then repeat that hundreds of times. This attack targets resource depletion weaknesses in web server software. The web server will wait to attacker's responses on the initiated HTTP sessions while the connection threads are being exhausted.

Nessus

NASL familyF5 Networks Local Security Checks
NASL idF5_BIGIP_SOL27391542.NASL
descriptionA remote attacker through undisclosed measures, may be able to exploit a virtual server configured with a BIG-IP APM per-request policy object and cause a memory leak in the BIG-IP APM module. (CVE-2018-5536) Impact This vulnerability allows a disruption of service.
last seen2020-03-17
modified2018-11-02
plugin id118649
published2018-11-02
reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118649
titleF5 Networks BIG-IP : BIG-IP APM per-request policy object vulnerability (K27391542)
code
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were
# extracted from F5 Networks BIG-IP Solution K27391542.
#
# The text description of this plugin is (C) F5 Networks.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(118649);
  script_version("1.5");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2020/03/09");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2018-5536");

  script_name(english:"F5 Networks BIG-IP : BIG-IP APM per-request policy object vulnerability (K27391542)");
  script_summary(english:"Checks the BIG-IP version.");

  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"synopsis", 
    value:"The remote device is missing a vendor-supplied security patch."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"description", 
    value:
"A remote attacker through undisclosed measures, may be able to exploit
a virtual server configured with a BIG-IP APM per-request policy
object and cause a memory leak in the BIG-IP APM module.
(CVE-2018-5536)

Impact

This vulnerability allows a disruption of service."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K27391542"
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"solution", 
    value:
"Upgrade to one of the non-vulnerable versions listed in the F5
Solution K27391542."
  );
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_access_policy_manager");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/h:f5:big-ip");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2018/07/25");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2018/07/24");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2018/11/02");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");
  script_family(english:"F5 Networks Local Security Checks");

  script_dependencies("f5_bigip_detect.nbin");
  script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/BIG-IP/hotfix", "Host/BIG-IP/modules", "Host/BIG-IP/version");

  exit(0);
}


include("f5_func.inc");

if ( ! get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled") ) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
version = get_kb_item("Host/BIG-IP/version");
if ( ! version ) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "F5 Networks BIG-IP");
if ( isnull(get_kb_item("Host/BIG-IP/hotfix")) ) audit(AUDIT_KB_MISSING, "Host/BIG-IP/hotfix");
if ( ! get_kb_item("Host/BIG-IP/modules") ) audit(AUDIT_KB_MISSING, "Host/BIG-IP/modules");

sol = "K27391542";
vmatrix = make_array();

# APM
vmatrix["APM"] = make_array();
vmatrix["APM"]["affected"  ] = make_list("14.0.0","13.0.0-13.1.0","12.1.0-12.1.3");
vmatrix["APM"]["unaffected"] = make_list("14.1.0","13.1.0.8","12.1.3.6");


if (bigip_is_affected(vmatrix:vmatrix, sol:sol))
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_warning(port:0, extra:bigip_report_get());
  else security_warning(0);
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  tested = bigip_get_tested_modules();
  audit_extra = "For BIG-IP module(s) " + tested + ",";
  if (tested) audit(AUDIT_INST_VER_NOT_VULN, audit_extra, version);
  else audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, "running the affected module APM");
}

References