CVE-2020-13574 – This vulnerability in Genivia gSOAP's WS-Securi... (How to Fix)

Q: What is the severity of CVE-2020-13574?

CVE-2020-13574 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH). This vulnerability in Genivia gSOAP's WS-Security plugin allows attackers to cause denial-of-service by sending specially crafted SOAP requests. Systems using gSOAP 2.8.107 with WS-Security enabled are affected. The vulnerability can crash the service, disrupting legitimate users.

📋 TL;DR

This vulnerability in Genivia gSOAP's WS-Security plugin allows attackers to cause denial-of-service by sending specially crafted SOAP requests. Systems using gSOAP 2.8.107 with WS-Security enabled are affected. The vulnerability can crash the service, disrupting legitimate users.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:

Genivia gSOAP

Versions: Version 2.8.107 specifically

Operating Systems: All platforms running gSOAP

Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes

Notes: Only affects systems with WS-Security plugin enabled. The vulnerability is in the WS-Security component specifically.

📦 What is this software?

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Complete service outage for applications relying on gSOAP's WS-Security functionality, potentially affecting downstream systems and business operations.

🟠

Likely Case

Service crashes requiring manual restart, causing temporary disruption to SOAP-based web services.

🟢

If Mitigated

Minimal impact with proper network segmentation and monitoring allowing quick detection and response.

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH - Attackers can exploit this remotely without authentication via HTTP requests.

🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM - Internal attackers or compromised systems could still exploit this, but attack surface is reduced.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ⚠️ Yes

Weaponized: LIKELY

Unauthenticated Exploit: ⚠️ Yes

Complexity: LOW

Exploitation requires sending a specially crafted SOAP request to the vulnerable endpoint. No authentication needed.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: gSOAP 2.8.108 or later

Vendor Advisory: https://www.genivia.com/advisory.html

Restart Required: Yes

Instructions:

1. Download gSOAP 2.8.108 or later from Genivia website. 2. Replace existing gSOAP installation with patched version. 3. Recompile any applications using gSOAP. 4. Restart affected services.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Disable WS-Security plugin

all

Temporarily disable the vulnerable WS-Security component if not required

Recompile gSOAP applications with WS-Security disabled (remove -DWITH_OPENSSL and related security flags)

Network filtering

all

Block or filter malicious SOAP requests at network perimeter

Configure WAF rules to block suspicious SOAP requests with malformed WS-Security headers

🧯 If You Can't Patch

Implement strict network segmentation to isolate gSOAP services from untrusted networks
Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules to detect and block exploitation attempts

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check gSOAP version: gsoap --version 2>&1 | grep -i version. If output shows 2.8.107 and WS-Security is enabled, system is vulnerable.

Check Version:

gsoap --version 2>&1 | grep -i version || soapcpp2 --version 2>&1 | head -1

Verify Fix Applied:

Verify gSOAP version is 2.8.108 or later: gsoap --version 2>&1 | grep -i version. Test with known exploit payloads to confirm service remains stable.

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

Unexpected service crashes/restarts
Error logs containing WS-Security or SOAP parsing failures
High volume of malformed SOAP requests

Network Indicators:

Spike in HTTP requests to SOAP endpoints
Requests with unusual WS-Security headers
Traffic patterns matching known exploit payloads

SIEM Query:

source="*gsoap*" AND ("crash" OR "segfault" OR "WS-Security error") OR http.uri="*.wsdl" AND http.status="500"

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2020-13574

CVSS v3 Score: 7.5 (HIGH)

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

CWE: CWE-476

Published: February 10, 2021

Last Updated: November 21, 2024

🔗 References

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