CVE-2020-4579
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in IBM DataPower Gateway allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service by sending specially crafted HTTP/2 requests with invalid characters. It affects IBM DataPower Gateway versions 2018.4.1.0 through 2018.4.1.12, potentially disrupting service availability for organizations using these versions.
💻 Affected Systems
- IBM DataPower Gateway
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete service outage of the DataPower Gateway, disrupting all traffic routing and processing capabilities.
Likely Case
Service disruption affecting specific endpoints or services handled by the gateway, requiring restart to recover.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact if patched or workarounds implemented; potential brief service interruption during attack.
🎯 Exploit Status
Attack requires sending specially crafted HTTP/2 requests; no authentication needed.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2018.4.1.13 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6334703
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download IBM DataPower Gateway 2018.4.1.13 or later from IBM Fix Central. 2. Follow IBM's upgrade procedures for DataPower Gateway. 3. Restart the gateway service after patching.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable HTTP/2
allTemporarily disable HTTP/2 protocol support to prevent exploitation while patching.
Configure DataPower Gateway to only accept HTTP/1.x traffic
Network Filtering
allImplement network filtering to block malformed HTTP/2 requests at the perimeter.
Configure WAF or firewall rules to inspect and filter HTTP/2 traffic
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation to limit access to DataPower Gateway
- Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) with HTTP/2 anomaly detection rules
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check DataPower Gateway version via administrative interface or CLI; if version is between 2018.4.1.0 and 2018.4.1.12, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
show versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify version is 2018.4.1.13 or later and test with HTTP/2 traffic to ensure no service disruption.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual HTTP/2 connection resets
- Gateway service crashes or restarts
- Error logs mentioning malformed HTTP/2 requests
Network Indicators:
- Spike in HTTP/2 traffic with abnormal patterns
- Multiple failed HTTP/2 connections from single source
SIEM Query:
source="datapower" AND ("HTTP/2" OR "malformed") AND (error OR crash OR reset)