IBM AIX 5.3/6.1 Subsystem race condition

CVSS Meta Temp Score
CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.
Current Exploit Price (≈)
Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.
CTI Interest Score
Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
7.9$0-$5k0.00

A vulnerability was found in IBM AIX 5.3/6.1 (Operating System). It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown code of the component Subsystem. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a race condition vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-362. The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The malloc subsystem in libc in IBM AIX 5.3 and 6.1 allows local users to create or overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the log file associated with the MALLOCDEBUG environment variable.

The issue has been introduced in 08/01/2004. The weakness was released 05/20/2009 by Hector X. Monsegur (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at securitytracker.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2009-1786 since 05/26/2009. Attacking locally is a requirement. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details are unknown but a public exploit is available.

A public exploit has been developed by Hector X. Monsegur in Shell File and been published 9 years after the advisory. The exploit is available at securityfocus.com. It is declared as proof-of-concept. The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 1754 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $5k-$25k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 64327 (AIX 6.1 TL 0 : libc (IZ50139)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family AIX Local Security Checks.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (50636), Tenable (64327) and Exploit-DB (40710). Entries connected to this vulnerability are available at 66963, 49263 and 93536.

Productinfo

Type

Vendor

Name

Version

License

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB CVSS-B Score: 🔍
VulDB CVSS-BT Score: 🔍
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 8.4
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.9

VulDB Base Score: 8.4
VulDB Temp Score: 7.9
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
unlockunlockunlockunlockunlockunlock
unlockunlockunlockunlockunlockunlock
unlockunlockunlockunlockunlockunlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Race condition
CWE: CWE-362
ATT&CK: Unknown

Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔍
Access: Public
Status: Proof-of-Concept
Author: Hector X. Monsegur
Programming Language: 🔍
Download: 🔍

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

0-Dayunlockunlockunlockunlock
Todayunlockunlockunlockunlock

Nessus ID: 64327
Nessus Name: AIX 6.1 TL 0 : libc (IZ50139)
Nessus File: 🔍
Nessus Risk: 🔍
Nessus Family: 🔍
Nessus Port: 🔍

Exploit-DB: 🔍

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: no mitigation known
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍
Exploit Delay Time: 🔍

Timelineinfo

08/01/2004 🔍
05/19/2009 +1752 days 🔍
05/19/2009 +0 days 🔍
05/20/2009 +1 days 🔍
05/20/2009 +0 days 🔍
05/20/2009 +0 days 🔍
05/20/2009 +0 days 🔍
05/26/2009 +5 days 🔍
05/26/2009 +0 days 🔍
07/14/2009 +49 days 🔍
01/30/2013 +1296 days 🔍
03/17/2015 +776 days 🔍
11/04/2016 +598 days 🔍
11/04/2016 +0 days 🔍
08/11/2021 +1741 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: ibm.com

Advisory: securitytracker.com⛔
Researcher: Hector X. Monsegur
Status: Confirmed
Confirmation: 🔍

CVE: CVE-2009-1786 (🔍)
OVAL: 🔍

X-Force: 50636
SecurityTracker: 1022261 - IBM AIX libc MALLOCDEBUG File Overwrite Bug Lets Local Users Gain Root Privileges
Vulnerability Center: 22828 - IBM AIX 5.3 and 6.1 Local File Manipulation Vulnerability via a Symlink Attack, Medium
SecurityFocus: 35034 - IBM AIX 'MALLOCDEBUG' File Overwrite Vulnerability
Secunia: 35146 - IBM AIX libc MALLOCDEBUG Privilege Escalation Vulnerability, Less Critical
OSVDB: 54617 - IBM AIX libc MALLOCDEBUG Environment Variable Local Privilege Escalation
Vupen: ADV-2009-1380

scip Labs: https://www.scip.ch/en/?labs.20161013
See also: 🔍

Entryinfo

Created: 03/17/2015 23:38
Updated: 08/11/2021 10:48
Changes: 03/17/2015 23:38 (68), 02/11/2017 10:32 (25), 08/11/2021 10:48 (3)
Complete: 🔍

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

◂ PreviousOverviewNext ▸

Do you know our Splunk app?

Download it now for free!