CVE-2002-2327 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the environmental monitoring subsystem in Solaris 8 running on Sun Fire 280R, V480 and V880 allows local users to cause a denial of service by setting volatile properties.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/21/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2002-2327 represents a critical weakness within the environmental monitoring subsystem of Solaris 8 operating systems when deployed on specific Sun Fire hardware platforms including the 280R, V480, and V880 models. This issue falls under the broader category of denial of service vulnerabilities that can severely impact system availability and operational integrity. The vulnerability specifically manifests when local users manipulate volatile properties within the environmental monitoring framework, creating conditions that can disrupt normal system operations and potentially lead to complete system unavailability.
The technical flaw resides in the improper handling of volatile properties within the environmental monitoring subsystem, which is designed to track and manage hardware environmental conditions such as temperature, power levels, and cooling system status. When local users exploit this vulnerability by setting specific volatile properties, the system fails to properly process these changes, leading to a cascade of operational failures that ultimately result in denial of service conditions. This weakness demonstrates poor input validation and state management within the subsystem, allowing malicious or unauthorized local actions to compromise system stability. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the system level and requires minimal privileges to exploit, making it accessible to any user with local access to the affected systems.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to enterprise environments that rely on Sun Fire servers for critical operations. The denial of service condition can result in complete system downtime, requiring manual intervention and potentially leading to extended service interruptions that affect business operations. Organizations running Solaris 8 on these specific hardware platforms face the risk of unavailability during critical periods, potentially leading to financial losses and service degradation. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple service interruption as it can affect system monitoring capabilities, potentially masking other underlying issues or creating false alarms that complicate troubleshooting efforts. Security professionals must consider this vulnerability as part of their overall risk assessment for legacy Solaris environments, particularly in mission-critical applications where system uptime is essential.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2002-2327 should focus on both immediate protective measures and long-term system hardening approaches. Organizations should implement strict access controls to limit local user privileges and ensure that only authorized personnel have the ability to interact with system monitoring components. System administrators should monitor for unauthorized property modifications and establish alerting mechanisms to detect potential exploitation attempts. The most effective long-term solution involves applying the appropriate security patches provided by Sun Microsystems, which would address the underlying implementation flaws in the environmental monitoring subsystem. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and privilege separation can help contain the potential impact of such vulnerabilities. Organizations should also consider migrating away from unsupported legacy systems like Solaris 8 to more modern operating systems that have better security controls and ongoing support. This vulnerability highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date system patches and following security best practices as outlined in industry standards such as those referenced in the CWE database and ATT&CK framework, which emphasize proper input validation and system state management as critical security controls.