Executive brief
A vulnerability in the Quake 2 game server allows remote attackers to disrupt the service. By sending a specially crafted network packet, an attacker can trick the server into attempting to connect to itself, leading to a denial of service. This prevents legitimate players from connecting to or using the game server.
Technical details
The Quake 2 server is vulnerable to a denial of service (DoS) attack due to improper handling of spoofed UDP packets. An attacker can send a UDP packet with a forged source IP address of 127.0.0.1 (localhost). The server, upon receiving this packet, attempts to respond or establish a connection back to the source address, effectively attempting to connect to itself in an infinite loop or resource-exhausting state. This is a network-based attack that requires no authentication and results in the unavailability of the server.
Affected products
- id Software Quake 2 server
Timeline
- 1997-12-24: disclosed