SNMP and Potential ASN.1 Vulnerabilities

Earlier this year a number of issues with the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) [RFC1157] were highlighted by the University of Oulu Secure Programming Group [OSPG]. This led to the release of a CERT vulnerability alert [CA0203] and a flurry of activity by vendors to release patches to address the issues highlighted. Following this initial activity there has been, despite little press attention, a sustained rumble within the IT security industry with concerns being voiced that the issues raised by Oulu are not solely related to SNMP. As ASN.1 is a fundamental part of a number of widely used protocols there is concern that these too may be susceptible to the same kind of issues and, whereas SNMP could be filtered at an organizationÂ’s firewall, many other potentially vulnerable protocols would be much harder to protect and have a much more detrimental effect on the Internet as a whole were a successful attack to take place.

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