HTTP/2 Rapid reset attack The HTTP/2 protocol allows clients to indicate to the server that a previous stream should be canceled by sending a RSTSTREAM frame. The protocol does not require the client and server to coordinate the cancellation in any way, the client may do it unilaterally. The client may also assume that the cancellation will take effect immediately when the server receives the RSTSTREAM frame, before any other data from that TCP connection is processed.
Abuse of this feature is called a Rapid Reset attack because it relies on the ability for an endpoint to send a RSTSTREAM frame immediately after sending a request frame, which makes the other endpoint start working and then rapidly resets the request. The request is canceled, but leaves the HTTP/2 connection open.
The HTTP/2 Rapid Reset attack built on this capability is simple: The client opens a large number of streams at once as in the standard HTTP/2 attack, but rather than waiting for a response to each request stream from the server or proxy, the client cancels each request immediately.
The ability to reset streams immediately allows each connection to have an indefinite number of requests in flight. By explicitly canceling the requests, the attacker never exceeds the limit on the number of concurrent open streams. The number of in-flight requests is no longer dependent on the round-trip time (RTT), but only on the available network bandwidth.
In a typical HTTP/2 server implementation, the server will still have to do significant amounts of work for canceled requests, such as allocating new stream data structures, parsing the query and doing header decompression, and mapping the URL to a resource. For reverse proxy implementations, the request may be proxied to the backend server before the RSTSTREAM frame is processed. The client on the other hand paid almost no costs for sending the requests. This creates an exploitable cost asymmetry between the server and the client.
Multiple software artifacts implementing HTTP/2 are affected. This advisory was originally ingested from the swift-nio-http2 repo advisory and their original conent follows.
swift-nio-http2 specific advisory swift-nio-http2 is vulnerable to a denial-of-service vulnerability in which a malicious client can create and then reset a large number of HTTP/2 streams in a short period of time. This causes swift-nio-http2 to commit to a large amount of expensive work which it then throws away, including creating entirely new Channels to serve the traffic. This can easily overwhelm an EventLoop and prevent it from making forward progress.
swift-nio-http2 1.28 contains a remediation for this issue that applies reset counter using a sliding window. This constrains the number of stream resets that may occur in a given window of time. Clients violating this limit will have their connections torn down. This allows clients to continue to cancel streams for legitimate reasons, while constraining malicious actors.
When a virtual server is enabled with VLAN group and SNAT listener is configured, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
When an SSL Client Certificate LDAP or Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point (CRLDP) authentication profile is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed requests can cause an increase in CPU resource utilization.
When HTTP/2 is configured on BIG-IP or BIG-IP Next SPK systems, undisclosed responses can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
When BIG-IP is deployed in high availability (HA) and an iControl REST API token is updated, the change does not sync to the peer device.
An authenticated SQL injection vulnerability exists in the BIG-IP Configuration utility which
may allow an authenticated attacker with network access to the Configuration utility through the BIG-IP management port and/or self IP addresses to execute arbitrary system commands.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated
In BIG-IP versions 17.0.x before 17.0.0.1, 16.1.x before 16.1.3.1, 15.1.x before 15.1.6.1, 14.1.x before 14.1.5.1, and 13.1.x before 13.1.5.1, when a SIP profile is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed messages can cause an increase in memory resource utilization.
In BIG-IP versions 17.0.x before 17.0.0.1, 16.1.x before 16.1.3.2, 15.1.x before 15.1.7, 14.1.x before 14.1.5.2, and 13.1.x before 13.1.5.1, when a sideband iRule is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed traffic can cause an increase in memory resource utilization.
On BIG-IP 15.1.0-15.1.0.1, 15.0.0-15.0.1.1, and 14.1.0-14.1.2.2, under certain conditions, TMM may crash or stop processing new traffic with the DPDK/ENA driver on AWS systems while sending traffic. This issue does not affect any other platforms, hardware or virtual, or any other cloud provider since the affected driver is specific to AWS.
On BIG-IP 15.0.0-15.1.0.2, 14.1.0-14.1.2.3, 13.1.0-13.1.3.2, 12.1.0-12.1.5.1, and 11.5.2-11.6.5.1 and BIG-IQ 7.0.0, 6.0.0-6.1.0, and 5.2.0-5.4.0, in a High Availability (HA) network failover in Device Service Cluster (DSC), the failover service does not require a strong form of authentication and HA network failover traffic is not encrypted by Transport Layer Security (TLS).
A vulnerability was found in the fs/inode.c:inodeinitowner() function logic of the LInux kernel that allows local users to create files with an unintended group ownership and with group execution and SGID permission bits set, in a scenario where a directory is SGID and belongs to a certain group and is writable by a user who is not a member of this group. This can lead to excessive permissions granted in case when they should not.
A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in an undisclosed page of the BIG-IP Configuration utility that allows an attacker to run JavaScript in the context of the currently logged-in user. This vulnerability is due to an incomplete fix for CVE-2024-31156 https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000138636 .
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
A command injection vulnerability exists in iControl REST and the BIG-IP TMOS Shell (tmsh), which may allow an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary system commands.
When running in Appliance mode, a command injection vulnerability exists in an undisclosed iControl REST and BIG-IP TMOS Shell (tmsh) command that may allow an authenticated attacker with administrator role privileges to execute arbitrary system commands. A successful exploit can allow the attacker to cross a security boundary.
When an iRule using an ILX::call command is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in an undisclosed page of the BIG-IP Configuration utility that allows an attacker to run JavaScript in the context of the currently logged-in user.
Under undisclosed traffic conditions along with conditions beyond the attacker's control, hardware systems with a High-Speed Bridge (HSB) and an embedded Packet Velocity Acceleration (ePVA) chip may experience a lockup of the HSB.
When a TCP profile with Multipath TCP (MPTCP) enabled is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed traffic along with conditions beyond the attacker's control can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
When DNS cache is configured on a BIG-IP or BIG-IP Next CNF virtual server, undisclosed DNS queries can cause an increase in memory resource utilization.
When a virtual server, network address translation (NAT) object, or secure network address translation (SNAT) object uses the embedded Packet Velocity Acceleration (ePVA) feature, and the Auto Last Hop setting is disabled, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate. The Auto Last Hop setting is enabled globally by default. For more information about the Auto Last Hop setting, refer to K13876: Overview of the Auto Last Hop setting (15.x - 17.x). To determine which BIG-IP platforms have an ePVA chip, refer to K12837: Overview of the ePVA feature.
When the database variable tm.tcpudptxchecksum is configured as non-default value Software-only on a BIG-IP system, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
When IPsec is configured on the BIG-IP system, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
When using a multi-bladed platform with more than one active blade, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
An HTTP/2 implementation flaw allows a denial-of-service (DoS) that uses malformed HTTP/2 control frames in order to break the max concurrent streams limit (HTTP/2 MadeYouReset Attack).
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in an undisclosed page of the BIG-IP Configuration utility that allows an attacker to run JavaScript in the context of the currently logged-in user.
When a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message routing framework (MRF) application layer gateway (ALG) profile is configured on a Message Routing virtual server, undisclosed requests can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
When a Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) profile is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed requests can cause an increase in memory resource utilization.
When a BIG-IP LTM Client SSL profile is configured on a virtual server with SSL Forward Proxy enabled and Anonymous Diffie-Hellman (ADH) ciphers enabled, undisclosed requests can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate.
BIG-IP monitor functionality may allow an attacker to bypass access control restrictions, regardless of the port lockdown settings. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
When SIP session Application Level Gateway mode (ALG) profile with Passthru Mode enabled and SIP router ALG profile are configured on a Message Routing type virtual server, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.