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Denial of Service (DoS) Affecting org.apache.poi:poi-scratchpad package, versions [3,3.9)

0.0
medium

Snyk CVSS

    Attack Complexity Low

    Threat Intelligence

    EPSS 0.98% (84th percentile)
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NVD
5.3 medium

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  • Snyk ID SNYK-JAVA-ORGAPACHEPOI-30700
  • published 17 Jun 2014
  • disclosed 7 Aug 2012
  • credit Unknown
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Introduced: 7 Aug 2012

CVE-2012-0213 Open this link in a new tab
CWE-399 Open this link in a new tab

How to fix?

Upgrade org.apache.poi:poi-scratchpad to version 3.9 or higher.

Overview

org.apache.poi:poi-scratchpad is a Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS). The UnhandledDataStructure function in hwpf/model/UnhandledDataStructure.java allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (OutOfMemoryError exception and possibly JVM destabilization) via a crafted length value in a Channel Definition Format (CDF) or Compound File Binary Format (CFBF) document.

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

References