[ GLSA 200702-03 ] Snort: Denial of Service

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: Snort: Denial of Service (GLSA 200702-03)
Severity: normal
Exploitable: remote
Date: February 13, 2007
Bug(s): #161632
ID: 200702-03

Synopsis

Snort contains a vulnerability in the rule matching algorithm that could result in a Denial of Service.

Background

Snort is a widely deployed intrusion detection program.

Affected Packages

Package: net-analyzer/snort
Vulnerable: < 2.6.1.2
Unaffected: >= 2.6.1.2
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description

Randy Smith, Christian Estan and Somesh Jha discovered that the rule matching algorithm of Snort can be exploited in a way known as a "backtracking attack" to perform numerous time-consuming operations.

Impact

A remote attacker could send specially crafted network packets, which would result in the cessation of the detections and the consumption of the CPU resources.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Snort users should upgrade to the latest version: