#VU22824 Resource exhaustion in Kubernetes - CVE-2019-11253

Vulnerability identifier: #VU22824

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 6.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2019-11253

CWE-ID: CWE-400

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Kubernetes
Server applications / Frameworks for developing and running applications

Vendor: Kubernetes

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to improper input validation when processing YAML or JSON data in Kubernetes API server. A remote attacker can pass a malicious file to the API server and consume excessive memory and CPU resources, leading to a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Note, this vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker in Kubernetes versions prior to 1.14.0 due to default RBAC policy.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Kubernetes: 1.0.0 - 1.0.7, 1.1.0 - 1.16.1, 1.2.0 - 1.2.7, 1.3.0 - 1.3.10, 1.4.0 - 1.4.12, 1.5.0 - 1.5.8, 1.6.0 - 1.6.13, 1.7.0 - 1.7.16, 1.8.0 - 1.8.15, 1.9.0 - 1.9.11

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External links
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3239
https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/83253
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/kubernetes-security-announce/jk8polzSUxs

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.