eSO Security Advisory: 2397
Discovery Date: March 28, 2000
ID: eSO:2397
Title: Sun Solaris admintool -d and PRODVERS buffer overflow vulnerabilities
Impact: Local attackers can gain root privileges
Affected Technology: Solaris 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 7, 8 SPARC and x86
Vendor Status: Patches are available
Discovered By: Kevin Kotas of the eSecurityOnline Research
and Development Team
CVE Reference: CAN-2002-0089

Advisory Location:
http://www.eSecurityOnline.com/advisories/eSO2397.asp

Description:
The Sun Solaris admintool utility is vulnerable to multiple buffer overflow conditions that allow a local attacker to gain root access. The problems are due to insufficient bounds checking on command line options and on a configuration file variable. An attacker can use a carefully constructed string with the -d command line option or with the PRODVERS .cdtoc file variable to gain root privileges.

The first buffer overflow is related to command line execution of admintool with the -d switch, when a long string is used with "/Solaris" present.

The second buffer overflow occurs due to a lack of bounds checking for the PRODVERS argument in the .cdtoc file. The .cdtoc file is used to specify variables for installation media. Through the software/edit/add feature, a local directory can be specified that contains a .cdtoc file. The file can contain a string of data for the PRODVERS variable that will cause the program to crash or execute code when processed.

Technical Recommendation:
Apply the following patches.

Solaris 2.5:
103247-16

Solaris 2.5_x86:
103245-16

Solaris 2.5.1:
103558-16

Solaris 2.5.1_x86:
103559-16

Solaris 2.6:
105800-07

Solaris 2.6_x86:
105801-07

Solaris 7:
108721-02

Solaris 7_x86:
108722-02

Solaris 8:
10453-01

Solaris 8_x86:
110454-01

As a workaround solution, remove the setuid permissions with the following: chmod -s /usr/bin/admintool

Vendor site:
http://sunsolve.sun.com

Acknowledgements:
eSecurityOnline would like to thank Sun Microsystems and the Sun security team for their cooperation in resolving the issue.

Copyright 2002 eSecurityOnline LLC. All rights reserved.

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