CVE-2020-5939 Denial of service in BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE)

High 7.5 Published 5 Nov 2020 Updated 4 Aug 2024

Attackers can cause a denial of service on BIG-IP VE systems using specific Intel NICs with SR-IOV enabled, preventing traffic transmission.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2020-5939?

CVE-2020-5939 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, published on 5 Nov 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In versions 16.0.0-16.0.0.1, 15.1.0-15.1.0.3, 15.0.0-15.0.1.3, 14.1.0-14.1.2.6, and 13.1.0-13.1.3.4, BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) systems on VMware, with an Intel-based 85299 Network Interface Controller (NIC) card and Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) enabled on vSphere, may fail and leave the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) in a state where it cannot transmit traffic.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-5939?

It affects 14 products.

Products include F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager, F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall, F5 Big-Ip Analytics, F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, F5 Big-Ip Application Security Manager and 8 more.

How do I fix CVE-2020-5939?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-5939 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2020-5939 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-5939 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-f2mv-5w86-q7p2.