CVE-2001-0979 in HP-UX
Summary
by MITRE
Buffer overflow in swverify in HP-UX 11.0, and possibly other programs, allows local users to gain privileges via a long command line argument.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/08/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2001-0979 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within the swverify utility of HP-UX operating systems version 11.0 and potentially other related programs. This issue arises from inadequate input validation mechanisms that fail to properly handle excessively long command line arguments passed to the swverify utility. The swverify program is designed to verify software packages and their integrity within the HP-UX environment, making it a critical component for system administration and software management operations. The buffer overflow condition occurs when the program attempts to process command line arguments that exceed the allocated memory buffer size, leading to memory corruption that can be exploited by malicious actors.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability leverages the fundamental principle of buffer overflow attacks where an attacker can overwrite adjacent memory locations by providing command line arguments that surpass the predefined buffer boundaries. This particular flaw exists within the command line argument processing logic of swverify, where the program does not perform adequate bounds checking on input parameters. When a local user provides an excessively long command line argument, the program's memory layout becomes corrupted, potentially allowing the attacker to manipulate the program's execution flow. The vulnerability is classified as a local privilege escalation vector since it requires local system access but can potentially elevate privileges to that of the root user or the program's privileged execution context.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents significant security risks to HP-UX systems running version 11.0 and potentially other affected versions. The local privilege escalation capability means that any user with access to the system can potentially exploit this flaw to gain elevated privileges, which could lead to complete system compromise. The attack surface is particularly concerning because swverify is a system administration utility that typically runs with elevated privileges, making successful exploitation directly translate into system control. This vulnerability can be particularly dangerous in multi-user environments where less privileged users might attempt to exploit the flaw to gain unauthorized access to sensitive system resources or to establish persistent backdoors within the operating system.
The exploitation of this buffer overflow vulnerability aligns with several techniques documented in the attack framework, particularly those categorized under privilege escalation and code execution in local environments. According to the Common Weakness Enumeration standard, this vulnerability maps to CWE-121 which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-787 which covers out-of-bounds write vulnerabilities. The ATT&CK framework would classify this under privilege escalation techniques, specifically focusing on local execution of malicious code to gain elevated system privileges. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including patching the affected HP-UX systems, implementing input validation controls, and monitoring for suspicious command line argument patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. System administrators should also consider restricting access to the swverify utility to authorized personnel only and implementing additional security controls such as mandatory access controls or privilege separation mechanisms to limit the potential impact of such vulnerabilities.