CVE-2023-40019
Published: 15 September 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-40019 is a high-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Freeswitch Freeswitch. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 47.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-44638
Vulnerability details
FreeSWITCH is a Software Defined Telecom Stack enabling the digital transformation from proprietary telecom switches to a software implementation that runs on any commodity hardware. Prior to version 1.10.10, FreeSWITCH allows authorized users to cause a denial of service attack…
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by sending re-INVITE with SDP containing duplicate codec names. When a call in FreeSWITCH completes codec negotiation, the `codec_string` channel variable is set with the result of the negotiation. On a subsequent re-negotiation, if an SDP is offered that contains codecs with the same names but with different formats, there may be too many codec matches detected by FreeSWITCH leading to overflows of its internal arrays. By abusing this vulnerability, an attacker is able to corrupt stack of FreeSWITCH leading to an undefined behavior of the system or simply crash it. Version 1.10.10 contains a patch for this issue.
- 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.