Resource exhaustion in Hyperledger Besu
CVE-2021-21369
Hyperledger Besu is an open-source, MainNet compatible, Ethereum client written in Java. In Besu before version 1.5.1 there is a denial-of-service vulnerability involving the HTTP JSON-RPC API service. If username and password authentication is enabled for the HTTP JSON-RPC API service, then prior to making any requests to an API endpoint the requestor must use the login endpoint to obtain a JSON web token (JWT) using their credentials. A single user can readily overload the login endpoint with invalid requests (incorrect password). As the supplied password is checked for validity on the main vertx event loop and takes a relatively long time this can cause the processing of other valid requests to fail. A valid username is required for this vulnerability to be exposed. This has been fixed in version 1.5.1.
Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)
EPSS: 0.015 (73.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Affected products
- Hyperledger Besu — versions < 1.5.1
- Linuxfoundation Besu
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Third Party Advisory)
- security-advisories@github.com (Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2021-21369?
- CVE-2021-21369 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Hyperledger Besu, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2021-03-09.
- How severe is CVE-2021-21369?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.