An unauthenticated remote denial of service vulnerability in Extreme Networks Aerohive HiveOS allows attackers to render the administrative interface inaccessible for extended periods.

This vulnerability, identified as CWE-770, involves the improper allocation of resources within the NetConfig UI. Unauthenticated attackers can send a crafted HTTP request to the action.php5 script, specifically targeting the CliWindow function, to trigger a five minute service disruption of the web interface.

The exploitation of this vulnerability results in a temporary denial of service for the Aerohive HiveOS web management interface. While this does not provide the attacker with unauthorized data access or code execution, it significantly impacts operational availability by preventing administrators from managing network access points. Given the CVSS score of 7.5, the risk to network management continuity is considered high.

Immediate Action: Apply all relevant security updates provided by Extreme Networks. If an update is not immediately feasible, disable the web-based hive-ui via the CLI using the command: no system web-server hive-ui enable.

Proactive Monitoring: Monitor network access logs for suspicious HTTP requests targeting the action.php5 script or unusual spikes in web server resource consumption.

Compensating Controls: Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to filter and block requests containing the identified malicious parameters associated with the NetConfig UI.

Public Exploit Available: Yes — a proof-of-concept exploit is available via ExploitDB (EDB-ID: 48441) and Packet Storm.

Organizations utilizing Extreme Networks Aerohive HiveOS should prioritize patching to version 11.0 or higher to remediate this flaw. If patching cannot be performed immediately, administrators must disable the web-based Hive UI to eliminate the attack vector, as the simplicity of the exploit makes it a likely target for automated disruption attempts.