CVE-2020-11898 – This vulnerability in the Treck TCP/IP stack al... (How to Fix)

Q: What is the severity of CVE-2020-11898?

CVE-2020-11898 has a CVSS score of 9.1 (CRITICAL). This vulnerability in the Treck TCP/IP stack allows remote attackers to trigger an information leak by exploiting improper handling of IPv4/ICMPv4 length parameter inconsistencies. It affects numerous embedded systems, IoT devices, and networking equipment from multiple vendors that use vulnerable versions of the Treck stack. The high CVSS score reflects the potential for significant impact.

📋 TL;DR

This vulnerability in the Treck TCP/IP stack allows remote attackers to trigger an information leak by exploiting improper handling of IPv4/ICMPv4 length parameter inconsistencies. It affects numerous embedded systems, IoT devices, and networking equipment from multiple vendors that use vulnerable versions of the Treck stack. The high CVSS score reflects the potential for significant impact.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:

Various embedded systems, IoT devices, networking equipment from Aruba, Cisco, HPE, NetApp, and other vendors using Treck TCP/IP stack

Versions: Treck TCP/IP stack before version 6.0.1.66

Operating Systems: Embedded systems, various vendor-specific operating systems

Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes

Notes: Affects devices across multiple vendors - check specific vendor advisories for exact product lists.

📦 What is this software?

Tcp\/ip by Treck

View all CVEs affecting Tcp\/ip →

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Remote unauthenticated attackers could leak sensitive memory contents, potentially exposing credentials, encryption keys, or other critical data, leading to full system compromise.

🟠

Likely Case

Information disclosure allowing attackers to gather intelligence about system memory layout and potentially enable further attacks.

🟢

If Mitigated

Limited impact with proper network segmentation and firewall rules blocking unnecessary ICMP traffic.

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH

🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No

Weaponized: UNKNOWN

Unauthenticated Exploit: ⚠️ Yes

Complexity: MEDIUM

Exploitation requires crafting specific malformed ICMP packets but does not require authentication.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: Treck TCP/IP stack 6.0.1.66 or later

Vendor Advisory: https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-treck-ip-stack-JyBQ5GyC

Restart Required: Yes

Instructions:

1. Identify affected devices using Treck stack. 2. Check vendor-specific advisories for patches. 3. Apply vendor-provided firmware updates. 4. Reboot affected devices.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Block ICMP traffic at perimeter

all

Prevent exploitation by blocking unnecessary ICMP traffic at network boundaries

iptables -A INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type any -j DROP
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Block ICMP" dir=in action=block protocol=icmpv4

Network segmentation

all

Isolate vulnerable devices in separate network segments with strict access controls

🧯 If You Can't Patch

Implement strict network segmentation to isolate vulnerable devices
Deploy intrusion detection/prevention systems to monitor for ICMP-based attacks

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check device firmware version against vendor advisories. Use vulnerability scanners with CVE-2020-11898 detection capabilities.

Check Version:

Vendor-specific - check device management interface or use vendor-provided CLI commands

Verify Fix Applied:

Verify firmware version is updated to vendor-recommended patched version. Test with vulnerability scanners.

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

Unusual ICMP traffic patterns
Memory-related errors in system logs
Failed exploitation attempts

Network Indicators:

Malformed ICMP packets with length inconsistencies
Unusual ICMP traffic to embedded devices

SIEM Query:

source_ip=* AND dest_ip=* AND protocol=ICMP AND (packet_size>1500 OR packet_size<20)

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2020-11898

CVSS v3 Score: 9.1 (CRITICAL)

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

CWE: CWE-119

Published: June 17, 2020

Last Updated: November 21, 2024

🔗 References

http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/alert/ARUBA-PSA-2020-006.txt
https://jsof-tech.com/vulnerability-disclosure-policy/ Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200625-0006/
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=hpesbhf04012en_us
https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-treck-ip-stack-JyBQ5GyC Third Party Advisory
https://www.dell.com/support/article/de-de/sln321836/dell-response-to-the-ripple20-vulnerabilities
https://www.jsof-tech.com/ripple20/ Exploit,Third Party Advisory
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/257161
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/257161/ Mitigation,Third Party Advisory,US Government Resource
https://www.treck.com Product,Vendor Advisory
http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/alert/ARUBA-PSA-2020-006.txt
https://jsof-tech.com/vulnerability-disclosure-policy/ Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200625-0006/
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=hpesbhf04012en_us
https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-treck-ip-stack-JyBQ5GyC Third Party Advisory
https://www.dell.com/support/article/de-de/sln321836/dell-response-to-the-ripple20-vulnerabilities
https://www.jsof-tech.com/ripple20/ Exploit,Third Party Advisory
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/257161
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/257161/ Mitigation,Third Party Advisory,US Government Resource
https://www.treck.com Product,Vendor Advisory

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