CVE-2021-32675
Published: 04 October 2021
Summary
CVE-2021-32675 is a high-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Redis Redis. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 9.3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2021-19484
Vulnerability details
Redis is an open source, in-memory database that persists on disk. When parsing an incoming Redis Standard Protocol (RESP) request, Redis allocates memory according to user-specified values which determine the number of elements (in the multi-bulk header) and size of…
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each element (in the bulk header). An attacker delivering specially crafted requests over multiple connections can cause the server to allocate significant amount of memory. Because the same parsing mechanism is used to handle authentication requests, this vulnerability can also be exploited by unauthenticated users. The problem is fixed in Redis versions 6.2.6, 6.0.16 and 5.0.14. An additional workaround to mitigate this problem without patching the redis-server executable is to block access to prevent unauthenticated users from connecting to Redis. This can be done in different ways: Using network access control tools like firewalls, iptables, security groups, etc. or Enabling TLS and requiring users to authenticate using client side certificates.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
This control implements explicit throttling on session allocation, addressing the weakness of allocating resources without limits.
Plan testing exercises resource allocation limits and throttling during simulated failures, directly addressing weaknesses that allow unbounded resource use.
Contingency plan updates ensure recovery strategies address unbounded resource allocation, making it harder for attackers to exploit lack of throttling to cause prolonged outages.
Provides continuity when unbounded resource allocation at the primary site leads to exhaustion and downtime.
Alternate services allow operations to continue when primary allocation of resources lacks limits or throttling.
Explicit planning of security-related actions requires defining limits, windows, and resource allocations, making allocation without throttling far less likely.
Measures of performance include tracking allocation behavior and throttling effectiveness, reducing the window for resource exhaustion attacks.
Imposes an inactivity-based limit on network resource allocation, throttling the number of concurrently held connections.