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Modsecurity CVE-2021-42717

HIGH
Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674)
2021-12-07 cve@mitre.org
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY
7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

1
CVE Published
Dec 07, 2021 - 22:15 nvd
HIGH 7.5

DescriptionNVD

ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.5 mishandles excessively nested JSON objects. Crafted JSON objects with nesting tens-of-thousands deep could result in the web server being unable to service legitimate requests. Even a moderately large (e.g., 300KB) HTTP request can occupy one of the limited NGINX worker processes for minutes and consume almost all of the available CPU on the machine. Modsecurity 2 is similarly vulnerable: the affected versions include 2.8.0 through 2.9.4.

AnalysisAI

ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.5 mishandles excessively nested JSON objects. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.

Technical ContextAI

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-674. ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.5 mishandles excessively nested JSON objects. Crafted JSON objects with nesting tens-of-thousands deep could result in the web server being unable to service legitimate requests. Even a moderately large (e.g., 300KB) HTTP request can occupy one of the limited NGINX worker processes for minutes and consume almost all of the available CPU on the machine. Modsecurity 2 is similarly vulnerable: the affected versions include 2.8.0 through 2.9.4. Affected products include: Owasp Modsecurity, Trustwave Modsecurity, F5 Nginx Modsecurity Waf, Debian Debian Linux, Oracle Http Server. Version information: through 3.0.5.

RemediationAI

A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.

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CVE-2021-42717 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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