CVE-2006-3728 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the kernel in Solaris 10 with patch 118822-29 (118844-29 on x86) and without patch 118833-11 (118855-08) allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service via unspecified vectors that lead to "kernel data structure corruption" that can trigger a system panic, application failure, or "data corruption."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/19/2025
This vulnerability resides within the Solaris 10 kernel implementation and represents a critical security flaw that affects systems running with specific patch configurations. The issue manifests when certain kernel data structures become corrupted during normal operation, leading to system instability and potential denial of service conditions. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it requires only authenticated access to exploit, making it accessible to users who have legitimate system credentials but could potentially leverage this weakness for malicious purposes.
The technical nature of this vulnerability involves kernel-level data structure corruption that occurs under specific conditions when processing certain inputs or operations. This type of flaw typically arises from improper validation of user-supplied data within kernel space, where insufficient bounds checking or improper memory management can lead to buffer overflows, use-after-free conditions, or other memory corruption scenarios. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-122 which describes buffer overflow conditions in kernel space, and potentially CWE-119 which covers improper restriction of operations within a sphere of control.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risk to enterprise environments where Solaris 10 systems are deployed. The potential impact includes system panics that result in complete system crashes requiring manual intervention and reboot procedures. Applications running on affected systems may experience unexpected failures or data corruption that could lead to service disruption and data integrity issues. The authenticated nature of the attack vector suggests that insider threats or compromised accounts could exploit this weakness to cause widespread disruption across the system infrastructure.
The exploitation of this vulnerability typically occurs through carefully crafted inputs that trigger the kernel data structure corruption, potentially through system calls or network protocols that interact with kernel components. This aligns with ATT&CK technique T1068 which covers local privilege escalation and system compromise through kernel vulnerabilities. Organizations should implement immediate patch management procedures to address the vulnerability, specifically applying the patches 118833-11 for SPARC systems and 118855-08 for x86 systems. Additionally, monitoring for unusual system behavior, implementing intrusion detection systems, and maintaining comprehensive system logging can help detect potential exploitation attempts before they cause significant damage. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of keeping kernel components updated and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing of operating system kernels to identify and remediate such memory corruption issues before they can be exploited by malicious actors.