CVE-2021-23044 Denial of service in BIG-IP

High 7.5 Published 14 Sep 2021 Updated 3 Aug 2024

Attackers can cause a denial of service by sending undisclosed traffic when the Intel QAT compression driver is enabled on F5 BIG-IP systems.

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-2021-23044?

CVE-2021-23044 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, published on 14 Sep 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

On BIG-IP version 16.x before 16.1.0, 15.1.x before 15.1.3.1, 14.1.x before 14.1.4.2, 13.1.x before 13.1.4.1, and all versions of 12.1.x and 11.6.x, when the Intel QuickAssist Technology (QAT) compression driver is used on affected BIG-IP hardware and BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) platforms, undisclosed traffic can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-23044?

It affects 11 products.

Products include F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager, F5 Big-Ip Analytics, F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, F5 Big-Ip Application Security Manager, F5 Big-Ip Domain Name System and 5 more.

How do I fix CVE-2021-23044?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-23044 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-2021-23044 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-23044 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-j39x-23p8-9mpq.