Security Bulletin
Summary
A potential vulnerability CVE-2023-45288 - HTTP/2 CONTINUATION flood has been identified that may affect IBM Watson CP4D Data Stores. This vulnerability have been addressed. Refer to details for additional information.
Vulnerability Details
CVEID: CVE-2023-45288
DESCRIPTION: An attacker may cause an HTTP/2 endpoint to read arbitrary amounts of header data by sending an excessive number of CONTINUATION frames. Maintaining HPACK state requires parsing and processing all HEADERS and CONTINUATION frames on a connection. When a request's headers exceed MaxHeaderBytes, no memory is allocated to store the excess headers, but they are still parsed. This permits an attacker to cause an HTTP/2 endpoint to read arbitrary amounts of header data, all associated with a request which is going to be rejected. These headers can include Huffman-encoded data which is significantly more expensive for the receiver to decode than for an attacker to send. The fix sets a limit on the amount of excess header frames we will process before closing a connection.
CWE: CWE-202: Exposure of Sensitive Information Through Data Queries
CVSS Source: CISA ADP
CVSS Base score: 7.5
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)
Affected Products and Versions
| Affected Product(s) | Affected Version(s) |
| IBM Watson CP4D Data Stores | 4.0.0 - 5.0.3 |
Remediation/Fixes
For all affected versions, IBM strongly recommends addressing the vulnerability now by upgrading to the latest (v5.1 or later releases) release of IBM Watson CP4D Data Stores which maintains backward compatibility with the versions listed above.
| Product Latest Version | Remediation/Fix/Instructions |
| IBM Watson CP4D Data Stores 5.1 |
Follow instructions for Installing Watson Assistant in Link to Release (v5.1 release information) https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cloud-paks/cp-data/5.1.x |
Workarounds and Mitigations
None
Get Notified about Future Security Bulletins
References
Acknowledgement
Change History
08 Jan 2025: Initial Publication
*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.
Disclaimer
According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an "industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity and help to determine urgency and priority of response." IBM PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES ""AS IS"" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY. In addition to other efforts to address potential vulnerabilities, IBM periodically updates the record of components contained in our product offerings. As part of that effort, if IBM identifies previously unidentified packages in a product/service inventory, we address relevant vulnerabilities regardless of CVE date. Inclusion of an older CVEID does not demonstrate that the referenced product has been used by IBM since that date, nor that IBM was aware of a vulnerability as of that date. We are making clients aware of relevant vulnerabilities as we become aware of them. "Affected Products and Versions" referenced in IBM Security Bulletins are intended to be only products and versions that are supported by IBM and have not passed their end-of-support or warranty date. Thus, failure to reference unsupported or extended-support products and versions in this Security Bulletin does not constitute a determination by IBM that they are unaffected by the vulnerability. Reference to one or more unsupported versions in this Security Bulletin shall not create an obligation for IBM to provide fixes for any unsupported or extended-support products or versions.
Document Location
Worldwide
Was this topic helpful?
Document Information
Modified date:
16 January 2025
UID
ibm17180539