Description: If TLS/SSL is not explicitly configured in brpc, communication between client and server is unencrypted. Attackers can eavesdrop on network traffic and intercept sensitive data transmitted in plain text by exploiting brpc's default behavior of not enforcing encryption.
Impact: Confidentiality breach, exposure of sensitive data, potential for identity theft, data manipulation, or further attacks.
Affected brpc Component: Network Communication Layer (Channel, Socket, ChannelOptions, ServerOptions)
Risk Severity: High
Mitigation Strategies:
* Enforce TLS/SSL: Configure ChannelOptions.protocol to use "baidu_std_ssl" or "http2_ssl" on the client and ServerOptions.ssl_options on the server to enable TLS/SSL encryption.
* Use HTTPS Protocol: When using HTTP protocol with brpc, ensure the URL scheme is https:// to enforce TLS.
Description: Without TLS/SSL, attackers can intercept unencrypted brpc traffic and actively modify requests or responses. This exploits the lack of integrity protection in unencrypted brpc communication, leading to data corruption or manipulation of application logic.
Impact: Integrity compromise, data corruption, application malfunction, potential for unauthorized actions, financial loss, or reputational damage.
Affected brpc Component: Network Communication Layer (Channel, Socket, ChannelOptions, ServerOptions)
Risk Severity: High
Mitigation Strategies:
* Enforce TLS/SSL: Enabling TLS/SSL using ChannelOptions and ServerOptions provides integrity checks and makes MITM attacks significantly harder by encrypting the communication channel.
* Message Signing (Application Level): For highly critical data, consider application-level message signing as an additional layer of integrity verification beyond TLS.
Threat: Deserialization Vulnerabilities
Description: Attackers can send maliciously crafted serialized data (e.g., Protobuf messages) to a brpc server. Vulnerabilities in brpc's deserialization process or the underlying Protobuf library can be exploited, leading to arbitrary code execution or denial of service. This directly targets brpc's handling of incoming data.
Impact: Remote Code Execution (RCE), Denial of Service (DoS), information disclosure, or other arbitrary impacts depending on the specific vulnerability.
Affected brpc Component: Serialization/Deserialization Modules (Protobuf integration within brpc, ParseFromArray, SerializeToArray functions usage)
Risk Severity: Critical
Mitigation Strategies:
* Keep Protobuf Library Updated: Regularly update the Protobuf library used by brpc to the latest versions to patch known vulnerabilities.
* Input Validation Before Deserialization: Implement robust input validation on the server-side before calling brpc's deserialization functions to reject malformed or unexpected data.
* Use Secure Deserialization Practices: Follow secure deserialization best practices for Protobuf, being aware of potential vulnerabilities in specific Protobuf versions.
* Consider Sandboxing/Isolation: For high-risk scenarios, consider running brpc service components responsible for deserialization in sandboxed or isolated environments.
Description: Attackers can flood a brpc server with a large volume of requests, overwhelming its request handling mechanisms and resources. This exploits brpc's network service nature and can lead to server unresponsiveness or crashes, directly impacting brpc service availability.
Impact: Service unavailability, application downtime, business disruption, potential financial loss.
Affected brpc Component: Server Request Handling (Server, Dispatcher, Connection Pool, ServerOptions - max_concurrency, max_pending_tasks)
Risk Severity: High
Mitigation Strategies:
* Rate Limiting and Throttling (brpc Configuration): Utilize brpc's built-in rate limiting and throttling features configurable through ServerOptions to limit request rates.
* Connection Limits (brpc Configuration): Set appropriate max_concurrency and max_pending_tasks in ServerOptions to limit concurrent connections and pending requests, preventing resource exhaustion within brpc.
* Load Balancing (brpc Integration): Leverage brpc's load balancing capabilities to distribute traffic across multiple server instances, mitigating the impact of DoS attacks on individual servers.
* Network Firewalls and IDS/IPS: Deploy network security infrastructure to filter malicious traffic and detect DoS attack patterns before they reach brpc servers.
Threat: Lack of Authentication
Description: If brpc services are deployed without any authentication configured within brpc itself or at a higher layer, any client can invoke service methods. This directly exploits the lack of built-in authentication enforcement in default brpc setups.
Impact: Unauthorized access to service functionality, potential data breaches, misuse of service resources, and ability for attackers to manipulate or disrupt service operations.
Affected brpc Component: Server Request Handling (Server, Interceptors, ServerOptions - lack of default authentication), Authentication Modules (if custom interceptors are used)
Risk Severity: Critical
Mitigation Strategies:
* Implement Authentication Interceptors: Develop and register custom brpc interceptors to enforce authentication logic for incoming requests.
* Token-based Authentication (JWT with Interceptors): Use interceptors to validate JWT tokens passed in request headers or metadata, a common pattern for brpc services.
* Mutual TLS (mTLS): Configure mTLS within brpc using ServerOptions.ssl_options for client certificate-based authentication.
Description: Security vulnerabilities might be discovered in the brpc library codebase itself or in its direct dependencies (like Protobuf or other libraries used internally by brpc). Exploiting these vulnerabilities directly targets the brpc framework and can compromise applications using vulnerable versions. Impact: Various impacts depending on the vulnerability, ranging from Denial of Service to Remote Code Execution, data breaches, or other arbitrary impacts. Affected brpc Component: brpc Library Codebase, Dependencies (Protobuf, etc.) Risk Severity: High to Critical (depending on the specific vulnerability) Mitigation Strategies: * Keep brpc Library Updated: Regularly update the brpc library to the latest stable version to benefit from security patches and bug fixes released by the brpc project. * Dependency Scanning: Use dependency scanning tools to automatically identify known vulnerabilities in brpc's dependencies and update them accordingly. * Monitor Security Advisories: Subscribe to security advisories for Apache brpc and its dependencies to stay informed about newly discovered vulnerabilities and apply patches promptly.