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CWE-406

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CWE-406

Insufficient Control of Network Message Volume (Network Amplification)

Class
Incomplete

Description

The product does not sufficiently monitor or control transmitted network traffic volume, so that an actor can cause the product to transmit more traffic than should be allowed for that actor.

In the absence of a policy to restrict asymmetric resource consumption, the application or system cannot distinguish between legitimate transmissions and traffic intended to serve as an amplifying attack on target systems. Systems can often be configured to restrict the amount of traffic sent out on behalf of a client, based on the client's origin or access level. This is usually defined in a resource allocation policy. In the absence of a mechanism to keep track of transmissions, the system or application can be easily abused to transmit asymmetrically greater traffic than the request or client should be permitted to.

Common Consequences

Scope

Availability

Impact

DoS: Amplification, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

Potential Mitigations

Architecture and Design

An application must make network resources available to a client commensurate with the client's access level.

Policy

Define a clear policy for network resource allocation and consumption.

Implementation

An application must, at all times, keep track of network resources and meter their usage appropriately.

CVE-1999-0513

Classic "Smurf" attack, using spoofed ICMP packets to broadcast addresses.

CVE-1999-1379

DNS query with spoofed source address causes more traffic to be returned to spoofed address than was sent by the attacker.

CVE-2000-0041

Large datagrams are sent in response to malformed datagrams.

CVE-1999-1066

Game server sends a large amount.

CVE-2013-5211

composite: NTP feature generates large responses (high amplification factor) with spoofed UDP source addresses.

Applicable Platforms

Not Language-Specific

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