Denial of Service (DoS) Affecting github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp package, versions <1.11.1


0.0
high

Snyk CVSS

    Attack Complexity Low
    Availability High

    Threat Intelligence

    EPSS 0.47% (76th percentile)
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NVD
7.5 high
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SUSE
7.5 high
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Red Hat
7.5 high

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  • Snyk ID SNYK-GOLANG-GITHUBCOMPROMETHEUSCLIENTGOLANGPROMETHEUSPROMHTTP-2401819
  • published 16 Feb 2022
  • disclosed 15 Feb 2022
  • credit Unknown

How to fix?

Upgrade github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp to version 1.11.1 or higher.

Overview

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) when handling requests with non-standard HTTP methods.

Note: In order to be affected, an instrumented software must:

  1. use promhttp.InstrumentHandler* middleware except RequestsInFlight

  2. not filter any specific methods (e.g GET) before middleware

  3. pass metric with method label name to the middleware

  4. not have any firewall/LB/proxy that filters away requests with unknown method.

Workarounds:

  1. removing the method label name from counter/gauge used in the InstrumentHandler

  2. turning off affected promhttp handlers

  3. adding custom middleware before promhttp handler that will sanitize the request method given by Go http.Request

  4. using a reverse proxy or web application firewall, configured to only allow a limited set of methods.

Details

Denial of Service (DoS) describes a family of attacks, all aimed at making a system inaccessible to its intended and legitimate users.

Unlike other vulnerabilities, DoS attacks usually do not aim at breaching security. Rather, they are focused on making websites and services unavailable to genuine users resulting in downtime.

One popular Denial of Service vulnerability is DDoS (a Distributed Denial of Service), an attack that attempts to clog network pipes to the system by generating a large volume of traffic from many machines.

When it comes to open source libraries, DoS vulnerabilities allow attackers to trigger such a crash or crippling of the service by using a flaw either in the application code or from the use of open source libraries.

Two common types of DoS vulnerabilities:

  • High CPU/Memory Consumption- An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to take a disproportionate amount of time to process. For example, commons-fileupload:commons-fileupload.

  • Crash - An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to crash. For Example, npm ws package