Vulnerability Note VU#322540

HP-UX "rexec" command vulnerable to buffer overflow when supplied overly long command line argument to "-l" option

Overview

A buffer overflow vulnerability in the rexec program supplied in some versions of the HP-UX operating system could allow local users to gain privileged access.

I. Description

The rexec program allows local users to execute commands on remote servers. rexec calls the rexec subroutine to act as a client for the remote host's rexecd server.

The rexec program includes a "-l" command-line option that allows an alternate login name to be specified on the remote host. The rexec program supplied with some versions of the HP-UX operating systems contains a buffer overflow in the handling of the username argument passed to the "-l" option. An overly long username causes the rexec program to segmentation fault and could allow a local attacker to execute commands of their choosing on the local system. Since the rexec program is normally setuid to root, these commands would be executed with root privileges.

II. Impact

On systems running vulnerable versions of HP-UX where the rexec program is setuid to user root, local users may be able to execute code as root,thereby compromising the system.

III. Solution

Hewlett-Packard has released software patches and workaround information for this vulnerability. Please see the vendor information section of this document for more details.

Workarounds

Sites may wish to consider removing the setuid permissions from the rexec client program on systems that do not require its use.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Hewlett-Packard Company	Vulnerable	25-Jul-2003

References

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/7459

Credit

Thanks to Davide Del Vecchio for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Chad R Dougherty.

Other Information

Date Public:	2003-04-29
Date First Published:	2003-05-28
Date Last Updated:	2003-07-25
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):
NVD-ID(s):
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	14.43
Document Revision:	12

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