IBM Watson Speech Services Cartridge Denial of Service Vulnerability

Executive Summary

IBM Watson Speech Services Cartridge versions 4.0.0 through 5.4.0 are vulnerable to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack due to an out-of-bounds read in the Unpacker component. This flaw occurs when untrusted external input triggers repeated use of the Unpacker after an error, potentially causing a process crash with a segmentation fault.

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Detection Guidance

Detection involves checking for IBM Watson Speech Services Cartridge versions 4.0.0 through 5.4.0. Verify installed versions via system package managers or IBM documentation. Monitor for process crashes or segmentation faults in the Unpacker component.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to a denial-of-service condition, where the affected system becomes unavailable. An attacker could exploit this to crash the process, disrupting services that rely on IBM Watson Speech Services Cartridge.

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Compliance Impact

This vulnerability primarily impacts availability by causing denial-of-service through process crashes, which could disrupt services handling sensitive data. For GDPR, this may affect availability of personal data processing systems, potentially violating Article 32 requirements for resilience. For HIPAA, it could impact the availability of electronic protected health information systems, potentially affecting the Security Rule's integrity and availability requirements.

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Mitigation Strategies

Immediately upgrade to IBM Watson Speech Services Cartridge 5.4.0 Patch 8 or later. Download the patch from the IBM support page and follow installation instructions. No workarounds are available.

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