Title: Allaire ColdFusion Sample Script DoS Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
Coldfusion Server ships with several sample scripts, including a search engine. These are optional and the user is given the choice of whether to install them or not.
If upon installation an administrator enables the install of the search engine script, this could lead to a possible denial of service vulnerability. The search engine script ships with a component used to index the search directories. This is a cpu-intensive process and is only supposed to be used by the Search engine scripts when they detect that the directories are not indexed. Unfortunately, it is possible for any remote user to execute the indexing script with a web browser.
During this process the CPU usage will spike to approx 70%. To make matters worse, this particular request can be invoked multiple times which will cause 100% CPU usage. This consumption of system resources will cause the ColdFusion Server to stop handling any requests. A restart of the server service is required in order to gain normal functionality.
Affected Products:
- Allaire ColdFusion Server 4.5.1
References:
- Allaire: Cold Fusion Server Product Home Page
- Allaire: Security Best Practice: Removing Sample Applications and Online Documentation
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