IBM Lotus Domino Server LDAP DoS Vulnerability
iDEFENSE Security Advisory 02.10.06
http://www.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/display.php?id=389
February 10, 2006
I. BACKGROUND
IBM Lotus Domino Server software provides messaging, calendaring and
scheduling capabilities on a variety of operating systems. More
information about the product is available from:
http://www.lotus.com/products/product4.nsf/wdocs/dominohomepage
II. DESCRIPTION
Remote exploitation of a denial of service vulnerability in IBM Corp.'s
Lotus Domino LDAP server allows attackers to crash the service, thereby
preventing legitimate access. iDEFENSE is currently unaware of exploits
for this vulnerability other than those maintained by iDEFENSE Labs.
Vendor patches for this iDEFENSE exclusive report are currently
unavailable. A workaround has been provided.
The problem specifically exists within the LDAP server "nldap.exe." When
sending a specially crafted bind request with a long string to the LDAP
server port (389), a NULL pointer dereference occurs, resulting in a
crash of the process.
III. ANALYSIS
Exploitation of this vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote
attackers to crash the LDAP service, thereby preventing legitimate
usage. This attack takes little resources to launch and can be repeated
to ensure that an unpatched computer is unable to recover even after the
administrator manually restarts the service.
IV. DETECTION
iDEFENSE has confirmed the existence of this vulnerability in Lotus
Domino Server version 6.5.4. It is suspected that earlier versions of
Lotus Domino Server are also affected.
V. WORKAROUND
Employ firewalls, access control lists or other TCP/UDP restriction
mechanisms to limit access to systems and services. More specifically,
limit access to TCP port 389 on the LDAP server to only allow trusted
hosts to connect.
VI. VENDOR RESPONSE
The vendor has addressed this issue in the following products:
- IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 6.5.4 FP2
- IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 6.5.5
- IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 7.0.1
The vendor has published the following technote which details patching
procedures:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21229907
VII. CVE INFORMATION
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
name CAN-2005-2712 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in
the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for
security problems.
VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE
08/23/2005 Initial vendor notification
08/23/2005 Initial vendor response
02/10/2006 Coordinated public disclosure
IX. CREDIT
Sebastian Apelt is credited with the discovery of this vulnerability.
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X. LEGAL NOTICES
Copyright © 2006 iDEFENSE, Inc.
Permission is granted for the redistribution of this alert
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Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate
at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use
of the information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition.
There are no warranties with regard to this information. Neither the
author nor the publisher accepts any liability for any direct, indirect,
or consequential loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on,
this information.
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