CVE-2004-1942 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
The Solaris 9 patches 113579-02 through 113579-05, and 114342-02 through 114342-05, prevent ypserv and ypxfrd from properly restricting access to secure NIS maps, which allows local users to use ypcat or ypmatch to extract the contents of a secure map such as passwd.adjunct.byname.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/07/2017
The vulnerability described in CVE-2004-1942 represents a critical access control flaw in the Network Information Service implementation on Solaris 9 systems. This issue affects specific patches released by Sun Microsystems that were intended to secure NIS (Network Information Service) operations but instead created a significant security regression. The flaw specifically impacts the ypserv and ypxfrd daemons which are responsible for maintaining and distributing NIS maps across networked systems. When these daemons process secure NIS maps, they fail to properly enforce access restrictions that should prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information stored within these maps.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from improper implementation of access control mechanisms within the NIS service components. Secure NIS maps are designed to contain sensitive information such as user credentials and system configurations, and should only be accessible to authorized users with appropriate authentication and authorization. However, the affected patches introduced a condition where local users can bypass these access controls using standard NIS client tools. The ypcat and ypmatch utilities, which are legitimate administrative tools for querying NIS maps, can be exploited by local attackers to extract contents from secure maps including passwd.adjunct.byname which contains additional user account information beyond what is normally available through standard system interfaces.
This vulnerability has significant operational impact on Solaris 9 systems that rely on NIS for user management and authentication. The exposure of secure NIS maps can lead to information disclosure attacks where attackers gain access to additional user account information that could be used for privilege escalation or further attacks. The attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires only local user access, making it difficult to detect and defend against through network monitoring alone. This type of vulnerability directly violates the principle of least privilege and can compromise the integrity of user authentication systems. The issue aligns with CWE-284 Access Control Flaws, specifically addressing improper access control mechanisms that allow unauthorized information disclosure.
The mitigation approach for this vulnerability requires immediate patching of the affected Solaris 9 systems with the correct security updates from Sun Microsystems. Organizations should also implement monitoring for unauthorized use of ypcat and ypmatch commands on systems where NIS is active. Network segmentation and access control measures should be enhanced to limit local user privileges where possible. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1005 Data from Local System and T1078 Valid Accounts, as it allows for unauthorized access to system information and can potentially lead to account compromise. System administrators should also consider transitioning away from NIS to more modern authentication mechanisms such as LDAP or Kerberos to eliminate the attack surface entirely. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of thorough testing and validation of security patches before deployment, as the patches intended to fix security issues inadvertently introduced new weaknesses that could be exploited by local attackers.