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CVE-2016-9124: Revive Adserver: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts

CVE-2016-9124 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.8 and affects Revive Adserver. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

Revive Adserver before 3.2.3 suffers from Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts. The login page of Revive Adserver is vulnerable to password-guessing attacks. An account lockdown feature was considered, but rejected to avoid introducing service disruptions to regular users during such attacks. A random delay has instead been introduced as a countermeasure in case of password failures, along with a system to discourage parallel brute forcing. These systems will effectively allow the valid users to log in to the adserver, even while an attack is in progress.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 9.8: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts

The product does not implement sufficient measures to prevent multiple failed authentication attempts within a short time frame.

CWE-287: Improper Authentication

When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.

Affected products

  • Revive Adserver: up to and including 3.2.2

References