CVE-2014-3979
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedBytemark Symbiosis allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted username, which triggers the firewall to blacklist the IP.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceBytemark Symbiosis contains a vulnerability where crafted username input triggers the firewall to blacklist the source IP address, causing denial of service. An attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted usernames that cause the system to block legitimate access or consume firewall resources.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Bytemark Symbiosis installationCheck if the system is running Bytemark Symbiosis by looking for its characteristic directory structure (typically under /srv or /etc/symbiosis) or by running 'dpkg -l | grep symbiosis' or 'ls -la /etc/symbiosis'Affected if Bytemark Symbiosis is present on the system
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Verify firewall module is enabledExamine the symbiosis-firewall configuration directory (typically /etc/symbiosis/firewall) or check for iptables/ipset rules that may be managing blacklistsAffected if The firewall module is active and managing IP blacklists
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Locate username handling in authenticationReview the authentication configuration files in /etc/symbiosis (such as /etc/symbiosis/auth/* or similar) to identify where username input is processed and how it interacts with the firewallAffected if Username input is processed without proper validation before triggering firewall actions
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Check firewall logs for blacklist triggersExamine firewall logs (typically in /var/log/ or via 'iptables -L' or 'ipset list') for entries where source IPs were added to blacklist sets following authentication attemptsAffected if Firewall logs show IPs being blacklisted in response to username-based authentication attempts
The system is affected if it runs Bytemark Symbiosis with the firewall module enabled, where username input can trigger IP blacklisting without confirmation or rate limiting.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataRemediate by implementing proper input validation on username fields, adding rate limiting to prevent abuse, and modifying the firewall response logic to require confirmation before blacklisting IPs or to use temporary rather than permanent blocks.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-3979 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-3979 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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