BlackICE Agent TCP connections could cause excessive memory consumption on some systems
| blackice-excessive-memory-consumption (9405) |  Low Risk |
Description:
BlackICE Agent versions 3.1.eal and 3.1.ebh running on Microsoft Windows 2000 laptops are vulnerable to a denial of service attack. A remote attacker from within the same network segment as the vulnerable host could establish a large number of TCP connections to the host to cause the BlackICE Agent to consume up to 400 mb of memory. This could cause a denial of service on systems with low memory resources. Once this attack is performed, normal functionality would return in 10 to 15 minutes.
Consequences:
Denial of Service
Remedy:
BlackICE Agent users should reconfigure the maximum number of TCP connections to 5000 simultaneous connections. This setting can be adjusted by editing the local "blackice.ini" file, or by modifying this parameter using the ICEcap Management console: tcp.maxconnections=5000
Note: The next version of BlackICE Agent will be updated with the correct tuning parameters.
References:
- Internet Security Systems Downloads Web site: Download Center.
- VulnWatch Mailing List, Wed Jun 19 2002 - 04:35:19 CDT: KPMG-2002023: BlackICE Agent Temporary Memory Buildup . (From Neohapsis archive)
- CVE-2002-0957: The default configuration of BlackICE Agent 3.1.eal and 3.1.ebh has a high tcp.maxconnections setting, which could allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a large number of connections to the BlackICE system that consumes more resources than intended by the user.
- OSVDB ID: 4701: BlackICE tcp.maxconnections Memory Consumption DoS
Platforms Affected:
- ISS BlackICE Agent for Workstation 3.1 ebh
- ISS BlackICE Agent for Workstation 3.1 eal
Reported:
Jun 19, 2002
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