CVE-2022-26372

7.5 HIGH

📋 TL;DR

This vulnerability in F5 BIG-IP DNS listeners allows attackers to send specially crafted DNS requests that cause excessive memory consumption, potentially leading to denial of service. Affected systems include BIG-IP versions 11.6.x through 15.1.x with DNS queueing enabled (default configuration).

💻 Affected Systems

Products:
  • F5 BIG-IP
Versions: 15.1.x prior to 15.1.0.2, 14.1.x prior to 14.1.4.6, 13.1.x prior to 13.1.5, all 12.1.x, all 11.6.x
Operating Systems: F5 TMOS
Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes
Notes: Only affects systems with DNS listeners configured and DNS queueing enabled (default). Versions that have reached End of Technical Support are not evaluated.

📦 What is this software?

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Complete system outage due to memory exhaustion, causing service disruption for all applications hosted on the BIG-IP device.

🟠

Likely Case

Degraded performance and intermittent service disruptions as memory resources are consumed by malicious DNS traffic.

🟢

If Mitigated

Minimal impact with proper network segmentation and rate limiting on DNS traffic.

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH - DNS listeners are typically internet-facing and the vulnerability requires no authentication.
🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM - Internal attackers could still exploit this, but external exposure is more likely.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No
Weaponized: UNKNOWN
Unauthenticated Exploit: ⚠️ Yes
Complexity: LOW

The vulnerability requires sending undisclosed DNS requests to a vulnerable DNS listener. No authentication is required.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: 15.1.0.2, 14.1.4.6, 13.1.5

Vendor Advisory: https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K23454411

Restart Required: Yes

Instructions:

1. Download appropriate patch from F5 Downloads. 2. Upload to BIG-IP. 3. Install using tmsh install command. 4. Reboot system after installation.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Disable DNS Queueing

all

Disable DNS queueing on vulnerable DNS listeners to prevent exploitation

tmsh modify ltm virtual <virtual_server_name> dns-queueing disabled

Implement DNS Rate Limiting

all

Configure rate limiting on DNS traffic to reduce impact

tmsh create ltm profile dns <profile_name> rate-class { ... }

🧯 If You Can't Patch

  • Implement network segmentation to restrict access to DNS listeners
  • Deploy intrusion prevention systems to detect and block malicious DNS traffic patterns

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check BIG-IP version and verify if DNS listeners with queueing enabled exist: tmsh list ltm virtual one-line | grep -i dns

Check Version:

tmsh show sys version

Verify Fix Applied:

Verify version is patched: tmsh show sys version | grep -i version

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

  • Unusual memory consumption spikes in /var/log/ltm
  • Increased DNS query rates in DNS logs

Network Indicators:

  • Abnormal DNS traffic patterns to BIG-IP DNS listeners
  • High volume of DNS requests from single sources

SIEM Query:

source="bigip_logs" ("memory high" OR "dns queue") | stats count by host

🔗 References

📤 Share & Export