Executive brief
A vulnerability in the networking components of IBM AIX and HP-UX operating systems allows a local user to crash the entire system. By running a simple sequence of network commands on the machine, an attacker can trigger a kernel failure, leading to a complete service outage. This affects the availability of the server and any applications running on it, though it does not directly expose sensitive data.
Technical details
A kernel-level denial of service vulnerability exists in the TCP/IP stack of AIX 4.1.4 and specific HP-UX versions. The flaw is triggered when a local process creates a TCP socket, connects to a local port, calls shutdown() to clear the socket state, and then immediately attempts to reuse the same socket to connect to a different local port. This sequence causes a kernel panic or system crash. The vulnerability requires local shell access to execute the malicious code but does not require administrative privileges.
Affected products
- IBM AIX 4.1.4
- HP HP-UX 10.01, 9.05
Timeline
- 1997-03-05: disclosed: Initial discovery reported on Bugtraq mailing list
- 1997-03-05: advisory: NVD published date