The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning about a significant issue with the Service Location Protocol (SLP). They say this problem is actively being taken advantage of.
This problem is known as CVE-2023-29552, and it has a severity score of 7.5 out of 10. In simple terms, it’s a weakness that could be used to cause a “denial-of-service” attack. This means someone could disrupt a computer system or a network. It could also be used to launch a large-scale attack.
This issue was first revealed by Bitsight and Curesec in April. CISA explained that the Service Location Protocol (SLP) has a flaw that lets someone who isn’t authorized to do so register services and use fake internet traffic to cause a denial-of-service attack. This is a type of attack where a system is overwhelmed with fake data and can’t work properly.
SLP is a protocol that helps devices on a local network find each other and talk to each other.
The exact way this flaw is being used by attackers is still a mystery, but Bitsight previously warned that it could be used to carry out denial-of-service attacks with a strong impact. In other words, a small attacker could cause a big problem for a computer network or server.
To deal with this issue, government agencies need to take some precautions. They should turn off the SLP service on computers connected to untrusted networks by November 29, 2023, to make sure their networks are safe from possible threats. This will help protect them from this problem.