angler-fishThe Vulnerability History Project

CVE-2004-0113

Accessing an SSL enabled server port with a plain HTTP request would cause a memory leak due to a bug in the mod_ssl implementation. This vulnerability opens up the possibility of denial of service attacks by sending many plain HTTP requests.


This vulnerability was due to two mistakes. A poor judgement call to avoid having to reimplement/fix a feature that no longer worked, and an assumption that the memory for something would eventually be freed sometime somewhere else, instead of the proper place for it to be freed. The fix looks proper, but the lack of testing done around the issue leads me to believe that there are probably plenty of other similar, if not identical issues present in the code base.
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CVE: CVE-2004-0113
CWE: 401
ipc:
  note: 
  answer: 
  question: |
    Did the feature that this vulnerability affected use inter-process
    communication? IPC includes OS signals, pipes, stdin/stdout, message
    passing, and clipboard. Writing to files that another program in this
    software system reads is another form of IPC.

    Answer should be boolean. Explain your answer
bugs: []
i18n:
  note: 
  answer: 
  instructions: |
    Was the feature impacted by this vulnerability about internationalization
    (i18n)? An internationalization feature is one that enables people from all
    over the world to use the system. This includes translations, locales,
    typography, unicode, or various other features.

    Answer should be boolean. Write a note about how you came to the conclusions
    you did.
repo: 
vccs:
- note: Formerly dfa894557bb5c0b2fac6d75b39acae65f66957fc before HTTPD rewrote Git
    history.
  commit: e2742465a9c22393ee6c2540d43fe037b4d2c742
- note: |-
    A different modification in the code base deprecated the ap_remove_output_filter,

    leading to them changing the logic for handling http requests on SSL to disabling

    ssl filters instead of removing them.


    Formerly be891c26c90ba0dbb0eb5889e2360802d6a8a032 before HTTPD rewrote Git history.
  commit: 266bd151d1d748a3c00f1a045da0d9640eb75ba7
fixes:
- note: |-
    The fix entails properly freeing the memory allocated to the ssl structure

    upon HTTP request since it is no longer needed.


    Formerly cd15b09daf32bccdda035d8a299cfb2e4248580a before HTTPD rewrote Git history.
  commit: 0e34b8f5f4afa3f57fb49bdd7aa34e9e6f6cd554
bounty:
  amt: 
  url: 
  announced: 
lessons:
  yagni:
    note: 
    applies: 
  question: |
    Are there any common lessons we have learned from class that apply to this
    vulnerability? In other words, could this vulnerability serve as an example
    of one of those lessons?

    Leave "applies" blank or put false if you did not see that lesson (you do
    not need to put a reason). Put "true" if you feel the lesson applies and put
    a quick explanation of how it applies.

    Don't feel the need to claim that ALL of these apply, but it's pretty likely
    that one or two of them apply.

    If you think of another lesson we covered in class that applies here, feel
    free to give it a small name and add one in the same format as these.
  free_memory:
    note: Systems should always free the memory they allocate.
    applies: true
  serial_killer:
    note: 
    applies: 
  complex_inputs:
    note: 
    applies: 
  distrust_input:
    note: 
    applies: 
  least_privilege:
    note: 
    applies: 
  native_wrappers:
    note: 
    applies: 
  defense_in_depth:
    note: 
    applies: 
  secure_by_default:
    note: 
    applies: 
  environment_variables:
    note: 
    applies: 
  security_by_obscurity:
    note: 
    applies: 
  frameworks_are_optional:
    note: 
    applies: 
reviews: []
upvotes: 
CWE_note: 
mistakes:
  answer: |
    This vulnerability was due to two mistakes. A poor judgement call to avoid
    having to reimplement/fix a feature that no longer worked, and an assumption
    that the memory for something would eventually be freed sometime somewhere else,
    instead of the proper place for it to be freed.
    The fix looks proper, but the lack of testing done around the issue leads me
    to believe that there are probably plenty of other similar, if not identical issues
    present in the code base.
  question: |
    In your opinion, after all of this research, what mistakes were made that
    led to this vulnerability? Coding mistakes? Design mistakes?
    Maintainability? Requirements? Miscommunications?

    Look at the CWE entry for this vulnerability and examine the mitigations
    they have written there. Are they doing those? Does the fix look proper?

    Use those questions to inspire your answer. Don't feel obligated to answer
    every one. Write a thoughtful entry here that those ing the software
    engineering industry would find interesting.
nickname: 
reported: 
announced: 2004-03-29T05:00Z
published: 
subsystem:
  name: ssl
  answer: This mistake was present in the subsystem handling SSL.
  question: |
    What subsystems was the mistake in?

    Look at the path of the source code files code that were fixed to get
    directory names. Look at comments in the code. Look at the bug reports how
    the bug report was tagged.
discovered:
  date: '2004-02-20'
  answer: |
    Mick Wall was doing performance testing with apachebench and noticed large memory spikes
    after inadvertantly giving an SSL enabled url with a http prefix.
  google: false
  contest: false
  question: |
    How was this vulnerability discovered?

    Go to the bug report and read the conversation to find out how this was
    originally found. Answer in longform below in "answer", fill in the date in
    YYYY-MM-DD, and then determine if the vulnerability was found by a Google
    employee (you can tell from their email address). If it's clear that the
    vulenrability was discovered by a contest, fill in the name there.

    The "automated" flag can be true, false, or nil.
    The "google" flag can be true, false, or nil.

    If there is no evidence as to how this vulnerability was found, then you may
    leave this part blank.
  automated: false
description: |
  Accessing an SSL enabled server port with a plain HTTP request would cause a
  memory leak due to a bug in the mod_ssl implementation. This vulnerability
  opens up the possibility of denial of service attacks by sending many plain
  HTTP requests.
unit_tested:
  fix: 
  code: 
  answer: |
    Automated unit tests were not involved, as memory leaks are notoriously hard
    to automated test for without prior knowledge of where the leak may be happening.
    There were no unit tests written after the fixing of the bug either.
  question: |
    Were automated unit tests involved in this vulnerability?
    Was the original code unit tested, or not unit tested? Did the fix involve
    improving the automated tests?

    For the "code" answer below, look not only at the fix but the surrounding
    code near the fix and determine if and was there were unit tests involved
    for this module.

    For the "fix" answer below, check if the fix for the vulnerability involves
    adding or improving an automated test to ensure this doesn't happen again.
specification:
  answer: 
  answer_note: 
  instructions: |
    Is there mention of a violation of a specification? For example,
    an RFC specification, a protocol specification, or a requirements
    specification.

    Be sure to check all artifacts for this: bug report, security
    advisory, commit message, etc.

    The answer field should be boolean. In answer_note, please explain
    why you come to that conclusion.
curation_level: 1
CWE_instructions: |
  Please go to cwe.mitre.org and find the most specific, appropriate CWE entry
  that describes your vulnerability. (Tip: this may not be a good one to start
  with - spend time understanding this vulnerability before making your choice!)
autodiscoverable:
  answer: 
  answer_note: 
  instructions: |
    Is it plausible that a fully automated tool could have discovered
    this? These are tools that require little knowledge of the domain,
     e.g. automatic static analysis, compiler warnings, fuzzers.

    Examples for true answers: SQL injection, XSS, buffer overflow

    Examples for false: RFC violations, permissions issues, anything
    that requires the tool to be "aware" of the project's
    domain-specific requirements.

    The answer field should be boolean. In answer_note, please explain
    why you come to that conclusion.
yaml_instructions: 
bounty_instructions: |
  If you came across any indications that a bounty was paid out for this
  vulnerability, fill it out here. Or correct it if the information already here
  was wrong. Otherwise, leave it blank.
interesting_commits:
  answer: |
    Although there weren't specific commits of interest between the VCC(s) and fix(s),
    the first VCC itself was an interesting paradigm shift, since they made the bad call to
    disable instead of delete (free) the SSL structure. This decision was due to the
    removal of a previously utilized part of the system, and in retrospect seems like
    the lazy choice of hotpatching instead of actually fixing the underlying issue.
  commits:
  - note: 
    commit: 
  - note: 
    commit: 
  question: |
    Are there any interesting commits between your VCC(s) and fix(es)?

    Write a brief (under 100 words) description of why you think this commit was
    interesting in light of the lessons learned from this vulnerability. Any
    emerging themes?
curated_instructions: |
  If you are manually editing this file, then you are "curating" it. Set the
  entry below to "true" as soon as you start. This will enable additional
  integrity checks on this file to make sure you fill everything out properly.
  If you are a student, we cannot accept your work as finished unless curated is
  set to true.
upvotes_instructions: |
  For the first round, ignore this upvotes number.

  For the second round of reviewing, you will be giving a certain amount of
  upvotes to each vulnerability you see. Your peers will tell you how
  interesting they think this vulnerability is, and you'll add that to the
  upvotes score on your branch.
nickname_instructions: |
  A catchy name for this vulnerability that would draw attention it. If the
  report mentions a nickname, use that. Must be under 30 characters.
  Optional.
reported_instructions: 
announced_instructions: |
  Was there a date that this vulnerability was announced to the world? You can
  find this in changelogs, blogs, bug reports, or perhaps the CVE date. A good
  source for this is Chrome's Stable Release Channel
  (https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/).
  Please enter your date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
fixes_vcc_instructions: |
  Please put the commit hash in "commit" below (see my example in
  CVE-2011-3092.yml). Fixes and VCCs follow the same format.
published_instructions: 
description_instructions: |
  You can get an initial description from the CVE entry on cve.mitre.org. These
  descriptions are a fine start, but they can be kind of jargony.

  Rewrite this description in your own words. Make it interesting and easy to
  read to anyone with some programming experience. We can always pull up the NVD
  description later to get more technical.

  Try to still be specific in your description, but remove Chromium-specific
  stuff. Remove references to versions, specific filenames, and other jargon
  that outsiders to Chromium would not understand. Technology like "regular
  expressions" is fine, and security phrases like "invalid write" are fine to
  keep too.

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