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.
A vulnerability was found in OpenSSL 1.0.2. When an application encounters a fatal protocol error and then calls SSLshutdown() twice, OpenSSL can respond differently to the calling application if a 0 byte record is received with invalid padding compared to if a 0 byte record is received with an invalid MAC. This difference in behaviour can be detected by a remote peer, then this amounts to a padding oracle that could be used to decrypt data. In order for this to be exploitable "non-stitched" ciphersuites must be in use. Also the application must call SSLshutdown() twice even if a protocol error has occurred (applications should not do this but some do anyway). AEAD ciphersuites are not impacted. This issue does not impact OpenSSL 1.1.1 or 1.1.0.
Upstream bug: https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20190226.txt
Upstream Patch: https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/e9bbefbf0f24c57645e7ad6a5a71ae649d18ac8e
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
F5 BIG-IP Configuration utility contains an authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel vulnerability due to undisclosed requests that may allow an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the BIG-IP system through the management port and/or self IP addresses to execute system commands. This vulnerability can be used in conjunction with CVE-2023-46748.
On specific hardware platforms, on BIG-IP versions 16.1.x before 16.1.3.1, 15.1.x before 15.1.7, 14.1.x before 14.1.5.1, and all versions of 13.1.x, while Intel QAT (QuickAssist Technology) and the AES-GCM/CCM cipher is in use, undisclosed conditions can cause BIG-IP to send data unencrypted even with an SSL Profile applied.
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.
When running in Appliance mode, a highly privileged authenticated attacker with access to SCP and SFTP may be able to bypass Appliance mode restrictions using undisclosed commands. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
A Prototype Pollution vulnerability was found in lodash. Calling certain methods with untrusted JSON could lead to modifying objects up the prototype chain, including the global Object. A crafted JSON object passed to a vulnerable method could lead to denial of service or data injection, with various consequences.
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.
On the BIG-IP system, undisclosed endpoints that contain static non-sensitive information are accessible to an unauthenticated remote attacker through the Configuration utility.
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.
On BIG-IP systems, undisclosed traffic can cause data corruption and unauthorized data modification in protocols which do not have message integrity protection.
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.
A vulnerability exists in the iHealth command that may allow an authenticated attacker with at least a resource administrator role to bypass tmsh restrictions and gain access to a bash shell. For BIG-IP systems running in Appliance mode, a successful exploit can allow the attacker to cross a security boundary. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
A vulnerability exists in an undisclosed iControl REST and BIG-IP TMOS Shell (tmsh) command that may allow an authenticated attacker with at least resource administrator role to execute arbitrary system commands with higher privileges. A successful exploit can allow the attacker to cross a security boundary. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
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.
Under certain conditions, a data leak may occur in the Traffic Management Microkernels (TMMs) of BIG-IP tenants running on VELOS and rSeries platforms. This leak occurs randomly and cannot be deliberately triggered. If it occurs, it may leak up to 64 bytes of non-contiguous randomized bytes. Under rare conditions, this may lead to a TMM restart, affecting availability.
A directory traversal vulnerability exists in the BIG-IP Configuration utility that allows a highly privileged authenticated attacker to access files which are not limited to the intended files.
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.