The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, has issued a warning regarding a new high-risk vulnerability discovered in the Service Location Protocol (SLP), a network protocol used mostly in local networks. This weakness, known as CVE-2023-29552, can be used to disrupt network services by flooding them with traffic, a sort of attack known as Denial-of-Service (DoS). It\’s especially harmful because it may be amplified, which means that a little attack can be turned into a massive one, potentially making it one of the most serious sorts of DoS attacks.
The vulnerability was identified in April by Bitsight and Curesec researchers and is currently being actively exploited. SLP is an outdated protocol used by network devices to find and communicate with one another, although it was never intended to be exposed to the public internet. Unfortunately, many devices, including those manufactured by large corporations like as VMware and Konica Minolta, are online and can be abused using this vulnerability.
Step-by-Step Breakdown of a DoS Attack Using CVE-2023-29552 Vulnerability
To understand how the CVE-2023-29552 vulnerability is exploited in a Denial-of-Service attack, let\’s break down the steps an attacker would take:
- The attacker commences by searching for a server that is listening on UDP port 427 for the Service Location Protocol (SLP). This server will be used to direct the stream of traffic to their intended victim.
- Once an SLP server is located, the attacker registers numerous services on it. They continue to do so until the server exceeds its capacity and can no longer accept any more service registrations. This is like filling a glass with water until it can no longer hold any more.
- Now, the attacker sends a request to the overloaded SLP server. The catch is that they forge the information so that the server believes the request is coming from the chosen victim\’s IP address.
- The attacker keeps sending fake queries to the SLP server. Because the server believes these requests are coming from the victim, it directs its answers to that location.
The attacker can initiate the attack by sending fake requests, and the server will keep sending unwanted traffic to the victim. This can continue for as long as the attacker wants, causing the victim\’s network resources to be overwhelmed. The process only needs to be set up once initially, and then the attacker can keep the attack going without any further setup. It\’s similar to someone continuously ringing your doorbell, thinking they were invited when in reality, someone else is telling them to do so.
Mitigation Measures
To protect against this vulnerability, organizations are advised to take the following steps:
- Disable the SLP service on any systems that are on untrusted networks, particularly those connected to the internet.
- Configure firewalls to block traffic on UDP and TCP port 427 to prevent external access to the SLP service.
- Ensure strong authentication and access control measures are in place to limit network resource access to authorized users only.
- Implement robust network security controls and have a well-defined incident response plan ready for mitigating such vulnerabilities and communicating with stakeholders during incidents.
By taking these measures, organizations can safeguard their networks against potential threats and reduce the risk of significant operational and financial harm due to DoS attacks.
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