Nextcloud · Report #1688199
Database resource exhaustion for logged-in users via sharee recommendations with circles
Validstatus
mediumseverity
$250bounty
13upvotes
26 Nov 2022disclosed
Summary
Security advisory at https://github.com/nextcloud/security-advisories/security/advisories/GHSA-wxx7-w5p4-7x4c
How it was found
Summary:
Registered users can generate massive database load
Steps To Reproduce:
- create 9 circles and 6 folders (circles * folder > 50)
- share all created folders with all created circles
- open an other folder and open the share tab, so the URI /ocs/v2.php/apps/files_sharing/api/v1/sharees_recommended is requested
- this requests results in a loop that runs as long as the php value max_execution_time is set; the recommended value for this is 3600 seconds (1h)
- a small number of these requests will stress even large servers
Tested with Nextcloud 23.0.8
Impact
Attacker slow down the system by generating a lot of database/cpu load.