WS-Policy Parser Stack Exhaustion in Apache Neethi

Executive Summary

This vulnerability involves a specially crafted WS-Policy document with deeply nested policy elements. It can bypass Neethi's nesting-depth limit, causing the parser to exhaust the thread stack and crash, resulting in a denial of service.

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Detection Guidance

Detecting this vulnerability requires checking the version of Apache Neethi installed on your system. If you are running a version before 3.2.4, your system is vulnerable. Use commands like 'find / -name "neethi*.jar" 2>/dev/null' to locate Neethi JAR files, then check the version with 'unzip -p <jar-file> META-INF/MANIFEST.MF | grep Implementation-Version'.

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Impact Analysis

The vulnerability can crash the parser, leading to service disruption or downtime. If exploited, it may cause denial of service, preventing the affected system from processing legitimate requests.

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Compliance Impact

This vulnerability primarily causes a denial-of-service condition by crashing the parser due to stack exhaustion. It does not directly affect data confidentiality or integrity, which are key concerns for GDPR and HIPAA. However, prolonged denial-of-service could impact system availability, potentially leading to compliance issues if critical services are disrupted.

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Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Apache Neethi to version 3.2.4 or later to fix the vulnerability.

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