Security Bulletin
Summary
Two security vulnerabilities were discovered in Red Hat Linux. The vulnerabilities are in the userhelper utility (part of the usermode package) and the libuser library. Both libraries are installed by default on Red Hat Linux distributions. Authenticated, local users with shell access could use these vulnerabilities to achieve local privilege escalation and denial of service attacks. These vulnerabilities affect IBM Netezza Host Management.
Vulnerability Details
CVEID: CVE-2015-3246
DESCRIPTION: libuser could allow a local authenticated attacker to gain elevated privileges on the system, caused by the improper handling of the /etc/passwd file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to gain root privileges on the system.
CVSS Base Score: 7.8
CVSS Temporal Score: See https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/105023 for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
CVEID: CVE-2015-3245
DESCRIPTION: libuser is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by the failure to properly filter out newline characters by the chfn() function within the userhelper utility. A local authenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to inject newline characters into the /etc/passwd file and cause a denial of service.
CVSS Base Score: 4.7
CVSS Temporal Score: See https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/105022 for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)
Affected Products and Versions
IBM Netezza Host Management 5.3.8.0 and previous releases
Workarounds and Mitigations
None
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References
Acknowledgement
None
Change History
1 September 2015: Original version published
10 September 2015: Revised for CVSS v3 links
*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.
Disclaimer
Review the IBM security bulletin disclaimer and definitions regarding your responsibilities for assessing potential impact of security vulnerabilities to your environment.
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Document Information
Modified date:
17 October 2019
UID
swg21965746