CVE-2001-1328 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Buffer overflow in ypbind daemon in Solaris 5.4 through 8 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/23/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2001-1328 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within the ypbind daemon component of Solaris operating systems version 5.4 through 8. This daemon serves as the Yellow Pages binding service responsible for maintaining network-wide name service mappings and is integral to the NIS (Network Information Service) infrastructure. The buffer overflow vulnerability specifically manifests when the ypbind daemon processes incoming network requests containing malformed data in the NIS lookup parameters, creating an exploitable condition that can be leveraged by remote attackers to gain unauthorized system access.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation within the ypbind daemon's processing routines. When the daemon receives network packets containing NIS lookup requests, it fails to properly bounds-check the size of incoming data buffers before copying the data into fixed-length memory structures. This oversight allows an attacker to craft malicious network packets that exceed the allocated buffer space, causing adjacent memory locations to be overwritten with attacker-controlled data. The flaw operates at the application layer and requires no authentication to exploit, making it particularly dangerous as it can be triggered through network-based attacks without requiring prior system access.
The operational impact of CVE-2001-1328 extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as successful exploitation can provide attackers with complete system compromise. The buffer overflow can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the ypbind daemon process, which typically runs with root-level permissions. This allows attackers to gain full control over affected systems, potentially enabling them to establish persistent backdoors, exfiltrate sensitive data, or use compromised systems as launching points for further network attacks. The vulnerability affects a critical network service infrastructure component, meaning that exploitation can result in widespread system compromise across networks relying on NIS for name resolution services.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including applying the appropriate security patches released by Sun Microsystems for Solaris 5.4 through 8, disabling the ypbind service if not required, and implementing network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted networks. Network-based intrusion detection systems should be configured to monitor for suspicious NIS lookup traffic patterns, while security administrators should consider implementing firewall rules that restrict access to the ypbind service ports. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1059 for remote code execution. Additionally, this issue demonstrates the importance of input validation in network services and underscores the need for robust memory safety practices in system daemon implementations. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify any other services running with elevated privileges that may present similar attack vectors, as the underlying architectural flaw in the ypbind implementation highlights broader security concerns in legacy system components.