CVE-2017-1000411
opendaylight: Controller denial-of-service due to "expired" flows taking up the memory resource of CONFIG DS
Published Jan 31, 2018
CVSS 3.0 · 7.5 High
EPSS 1.6%
KEV · Not listed
Description
OpenFlow Plugin and OpenDayLight Controller versions Nitrogen, Carbon, Boron, Robert Varga, Anil Vishnoi contain a flaw when multiple 'expired' flows take up the memory resource of CONFIG DATASTORE which leads to CONTROLLER shutdown. If multiple different flows with 'idle-timeout' and 'hard-timeout' are sent to the Openflow Plugin REST API, the expired flows will eventually crash the controller once its resource allocations set with the JVM size are exceeded. Although the installed flows (with timeout set) are removed from network (and thus also from controller's operations DS), the expired entries are still present in CONFIG DS. The attack can originate both from NORTH or SOUTH. The above description is for a north bound attack. A south bound attack can originate when an attacker attempts a flow flooding attack and since flows come with timeouts, the attack is not successful. However, the attacker will now be successful in CONTROLLER overflow attack (resource consumption). Although, the network (actual flow tables) and operational DS are only (~)1% occupied, the controller requests for resource consumption. This happens because the installed flows get removed from the network upon timeout.
Affected Products
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CVE record
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NVD configurations
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Red Hat packages
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OpenCVE enrichment
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Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
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No data available yet.
Remediation
Tracking
Advisories
| Source | ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
 EUVD |
EUVD-2017-1550 | OpenFlow Plugin and OpenDayLight Controller versions Nitrogen, Carbon, Boron, Robert Varga, Anil Vishnoi contain a flaw when multiple 'expired' flows take up the memory resource of CONFIG DATASTORE which leads to CONTROLLER shutdown. If multiple different flows with 'idle-timeout' and 'hard-timeout' are sent to the Openflow Plugin REST API, the expired flows will eventually crash the controller once its resource allocations set with the JVM size are exceeded. Although the installed flows (with timeout set) are removed from network (and thus also from controller's operations DS), the expired entries are still present in CONFIG DS. The attack can originate both from NORTH or SOUTH. The above description is for a north bound attack. A south bound attack can originate when an attacker attempts a flow flooding attack and since flows come with timeouts, the attack is not successful. However, the attacker will now be successful in CONTROLLER overflow attack (resource consumption). Although, the network (actual flow tables) and operational DS are only (~)1% occupied, the controller requests for resource consumption. This happens because the installed flows get removed from the network upon timeout. |
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0
No CVSS v3.1
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact None
Integrity Impact None
Availability Impact High
User Interaction None
Access Vector Network
Access Complexity Low
Authentication None
Confidentiality Impact None
Integrity Impact None
Availability Impact Partial
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
Exploit prediction score: 1.6% (1.572% probability within 30 days)
Key SSVC decision points have not yet been added.
References
History
No history.
