# CVE-2004-0278: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service in Ratbag game engine via crafted TCP packets, leading to excessive CPU consumption.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Mar 2004
- **Updated:** 8 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6m8x-9x29-g395

## What is CVE-2004-0278?

CVE-2004-0278 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Mar 2004. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Ratbag game engine, as used in products such as Dirt Track Racing, Leadfoot, and World of Outlaws Spring Cars, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a TCP packet that specifies the length of data to read and then sends a second TCP packet that contains less data than specified, which causes Ratbag to repeatedly check the socket for more data.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2004-0278?

It affects 5 products.


Products: Ratbag Dirt Track Racing, Ratbag Dirt Track Racing Australia, Ratbag Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars, Ratbag Leadfoot, Ratbag World of Outlaws Sprint Cars.

## How do I fix CVE-2004-0278?

No fix has been published for CVE-2004-0278 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2004-0278 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2004-0278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2004-0278 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2004-0278 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Mar 2004. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2004-0278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-0278/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-0278/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2004-0278
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2004-0278
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2004-0278

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-0278/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.