ISC Security Advisory: Memory Leaks Found in ISC DHCP

Cathy Almond cathya at isc.org
Tue Jul 24 17:52:39 UTC 2012


Note: This email advisory is provided for your information. The most up
to date advisory information will always be at:
https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-00737
please use this URL for the most up to date advisory information.

Title: Memory Leaks Found In ISC DHCP

Summary:

Two memory leaks have been found and fixed in ISC DHCP. Both are
reproducible when running in DHCPv6 mode (with the -6 command-line
argument.) The first leak is confirmed to only affect servers operating
in DHCPv6 mode, but based on initial code analysis the second may
theoretically affect DHCPv4 servers (though this has not been demonstrated.)

CVE: CVE-2012-3954
Document Version: 2.0
Posting date: 24 July 2012
Program Impacted: ISC DHCP 4
Versions affected: 4.1.x, 4.2.x
Severity: Medium
Exploitable: From networks permitted to send requests to the DHCP server.

Description:

ISC has discovered and fixed two memory leaks in the DHCP code. One of
the leaks only affects servers running in DHCPv6 mode. The other is
known to affect a server running in DHCPv6 mode but could potentially
occur on servers running in DHCPv4 mode as well. In both cases the
server can leak a small amount of memory while processing messages. The
amount leaked per iteration is small and the leak will not cause
problems in many cases. However on a server that is run for a long
period without re-starting or a server handling an extraordinary amount
of traffic from the clients the leak could consume all memory available
to the DHCP server process, preventing further operation by the DHCP
server process and potentially interfering with other services hosted on
the same server hardware.

Note: Under ISC's disclosure policy, this issue would not normally
require an advisory but we are issuing one in this case in coordination
with other security issues being disclosed at this time. DHCP 3.1-ESV
has not been tested for this issue but examination of the code suggests
that it is potentially vulnerable. All versions of ISC DHCP 3 are
currently beyond the end of their support from ISC and we will not be
releasing patches for these "End of Life" (EOL) versions.

CVSS Score: 3.3

CVSS Equation: (AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P)

For more information on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System and to
obtain your specific environmental score please
visit:http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?calculator&adv&version=2&vector=(AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P)

Workarounds:

Restarting the server at periodic intervals will address the problem
sufficiently in most operational environments. Where DHCP traffic is
permitted from hosts not under the control of the network operator (e.g.
open or semi-public networks) upgrading is more strongly recommended.

Solution: Upgrade to ISC DHCP 4.1-ESV-R6 or 4.2.4-P1

Download 4.2.4-P1 or 4.1-ESV-R6 from www.isc.org/downloads/all

Exploit Status: No known active exploits

Acknowledgment: ISC would like to thank Glen Eustace of Massey
University, New Zealand for finding this issue.

Document Revision History:

        1.0 - 11 July, 2012 - Phase 1 contacted
        1.1 - 17 July, 2012. - Phase 1 re-issued, re-released patch with
additional code
        1.2 - 23 July, 2012 - Phase 2 & 3 notification sent
        2.0 - 24 July, 2012 - Phase 4-Public release

References:

- Do you have Questions? Questions regarding this advisory should go to
security-officer at isc.org.

- ISC Security Vulnerability Disclosure Policy: Details of our current
security advisory policy and practice can be found
here:https://www.isc.org/security-vulnerability-disclosure-policy

- Japanese Translation: https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-00754

- Spanish Translation:  https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-00749

- German Translation:  https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-00738

If you'd like more information on our Forum or BIND/DHCP support please
visit www.isc.org/software/guild or www.isc.org/support

Legal Disclaimer:

Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) is providing this notice on an "AS IS"
basis. No warranty or guarantee of any kind is expressed in this notice
and none should be inferred. ISC expressly excludes and disclaims any
warranties regarding this notice or materials referred to in this
notice, including, without limitation, any inferred warranty of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, absence of hidden
defects, or of non-infringement. Your use of, or reliance on, this
notice or materials referred to in this notice is at your own risk. ISC
may change this notice at any time.

A stand-alone copy or paraphrase of the text of this document that omits
the distribution URL in the following section is an uncontrolled copy.
Uncontrolled copies may lack important information, be out of date, or
contain factual errors.





More information about the dhcp-users mailing list