Idtools Authentication Utilities May Let a Local User Elevate Privileges and Gain Root Level Access on the Host
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SecurityTracker Alert ID: 1001839
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SecurityTracker URL: http://securitytracker.com/id?1001839
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CVE Reference: CVE-2001-1324
(Links to External Site)
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Updated: May 22 2009
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Original Entry Date: Jun 26 2001
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Impact: Modification of system information, Root access via local system, User access via local system
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Vendor Confirmed: Yes
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Description: A vulnerability was reported in the idtools package that could allow a local user to obtain elevated privileges.
The vendor reports that idtools includes two commands (cvmlogin and statfile) that use pathexec_env from DJB's unix library but fail
to check the return value for memory allocation failure. As a result, some environment variables that should be set might not be
if memory is tight.
The vendor reports that this condition is exploitable in cvmlogin, but the exploit method is nontrivial.
It is reported that if the $UID environment variable is already set, cvmlogin will not override it, and its inherited value will
be passed to the child. The timing of the attack is reported to be nontrivial, as memory must become available for the child to
exec(). The vendor notes that the child runs $SHELL as $UID in the default configration. As a result, a successful login for a
non-root account might thus gain root privileges.
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Impact: A local user could obtain root level privileges on the host.
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Solution: The vendor is preparing a solution, reportedly to be released on June 27, 2001.
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Vendor URL: multivac.cwru.edu./idtools/ (Links to External Site)
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Cause: Resource error
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Underlying OS: Linux (Any), UNIX (Any)
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Reported By: prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc)
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Message History:
None.
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Source Message Contents
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Date: 26 Jun 2001 16:02:42 -0400
From: prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc)
Subject: [local] [control] idtools doesn't check memory allocation failure
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My idtools package (<URL:http://multivac.cwru.edu./idtools/>, both
versions) includes two commands (cvmlogin and statfile) that use
pathexec_env from DJB's unix library; they fail to check the return
value for memory allocation failure. Result: some environment
variables that should be set might not be if memory is tight.
For cvmlogin, this is exploitable, with difficulty: if $UID is already
set in the environment (grr bash), cvmlogin will not override it, and
its inherited value will be passed to the child. (Memory must become
available for the child to exec(), so timing makes this attack
nontrivial.) In the default configuration, the child runs $SHELL as
$UID. A successful login for a non-root account might thus gain root
privileges.
Expect a fix tomorrow.
paul
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