CVE-2016-2179: High severity OpenSSL OpenSSL vulnerability
It was discovered that the Datagram TLS (DTLS) implementation could fail to release memory in certain cases. A malicious DTLS client could cause a DTLS server using OpenSSL to consume an excessive amount of memory and, possibly, exit unexpectedly after exhausting all available memory.
Other sources
It was found that current mechanism of queuing the future messages, i.e. messages having greater sequence numbers that are to be processed later, is prone to DoS attack by memory exhaustion, when attacker can fill up the queue with lots of large messages that are never going to be used. Only up to 10 messages in the future can be buffered and queue gets cleared when the connection is closed, thus attacker can exploit this only with opening many simultaneous connections.
Upstream patch:
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/00a4c1421407b6ac796688871b0a49a179c694d9
— Red Hat
The DTLS implementation in OpenSSL before 1.1.0 does not properly rest ...
— Debian
Affected Software
Remediation
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of CVE-2016-2179?
CVE-2016-2179 is rated as moderate severity due to its impact on memory consumption.
How do I fix CVE-2016-2179?
To fix CVE-2016-2179, upgrade to the latest versions of OpenSSL specified in vendor advisories that patch the vulnerability.
What impact does CVE-2016-2179 have on affected systems?
CVE-2016-2179 can lead to excessive memory consumption by a malicious DTLS client, potentially causing the server to become unresponsive.
Which versions of OpenSSL are affected by CVE-2016-2179?
OpenSSL versions 1.0.1e and earlier, as well as other specified versions, are vulnerable to CVE-2016-2179.
Is there a workaround for CVE-2016-2179 until a patch is applied?
Currently, the best workaround for CVE-2016-2179 is to restrict untrusted DTLS clients or protocols until a patch can be implemented.