CVE-2024-4227
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in Genivia gSOAP allows unauthenticated remote attackers to cause a denial of service by sending specially crafted XML with duplicate ID attributes, forcing high CPU consumption. It affects systems using gSOAP with specific configurations that enable XML parsing with ID attribute handling. Organizations using gSOAP for web services or SOAP/XML processing are potentially affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Genivia gSOAP
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete service unavailability due to sustained high CPU consumption, potentially affecting multiple services if gSOAP is used in critical infrastructure.
Likely Case
Service degradation or temporary unavailability for affected endpoints, requiring restart of affected services.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper network segmentation, rate limiting, and monitoring in place to detect and block attack attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Attack requires sending specially crafted XML with duplicate ID attributes to vulnerable endpoints. No authentication required.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Check changelog.md and vendor advisory for specific patched versions
Vendor Advisory: https://www.genivia.com/advisory.html#Upgrade_recommendation_when_option_-c++11_is_used_to_generate_C++11_source_code
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Review vendor advisory for specific patched versions. 2. Upgrade gSOAP to recommended version. 3. Recompile affected applications with updated gSOAP. 4. Restart services using gSOAP.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allImplement XML input validation to reject or sanitize XML containing duplicate ID attributes before processing by gSOAP
Rate Limiting
allImplement rate limiting on XML processing endpoints to limit impact of DoS attempts
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network-level protections such as WAF rules to detect and block XML with duplicate ID attributes
- Isolate vulnerable services behind reverse proxies with request filtering capabilities
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if applications use gSOAP compiled with -c++11 option and review version against vendor advisoryCheck Version:
Check application build configuration for gSOAP version and compilation flagsVerify Fix Applied:
Verify gSOAP version is updated to patched version and test with sample XML containing duplicate ID attributes📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- High CPU usage spikes on services using gSOAP
- Multiple XML parsing errors or timeouts
- Unusual volume of XML requests to specific endpoints
Network Indicators:
- High volume of XML traffic to gSOAP endpoints
- XML payloads containing duplicate ID attributes
SIEM Query:
source="application_logs" AND ("gSOAP" OR "XML parsing") AND (cpu_usage>90 OR "timeout" OR "DoS")