CVE-2008-1778 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the floating point context switch implementation in Sun Solaris 9 and 10 on x86 platforms might allow local users to cause a denial of service (application exit), corrupt data, or trigger incorrect calculations via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/08/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-1778 represents a critical flaw in the floating point context switching mechanism within Sun Solaris operating systems versions 9 and 10 running on x86 architectures. This issue resides in the kernel-level implementation responsible for managing floating point unit state during process switches, which forms a fundamental component of system resource management and process scheduling. The unspecified nature of the vulnerability vectors suggests that multiple attack surfaces within the floating point context handling code could potentially be exploited by malicious actors.
The technical implementation flaw manifests in how the operating system manages floating point registers and state information when switching between processes or threads. During normal operation, the kernel must preserve and restore floating point context to ensure that each process maintains its computational state. However, this specific vulnerability appears to create conditions where improper handling of floating point state during context switches can lead to unpredictable behavior. The flaw likely involves inadequate bounds checking, improper memory management, or race conditions in the context switching code path that processes execute when transitioning between user and kernel modes.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to system stability and data integrity within Solaris environments. Local attackers with access to the system can potentially trigger application crashes through denial of service conditions, causing legitimate processes to terminate unexpectedly. More critically, the vulnerability could lead to data corruption where floating point calculations produce incorrect results due to improper state restoration. The potential for incorrect calculations extends beyond simple application failures to encompass scenarios where mathematical computations critical to system operations or user applications might produce erroneous outcomes, undermining the reliability of the entire computing environment.
The impact of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-119 Improper Access to Memory and CWE-248 Uncaught Exception categories, as it involves improper handling of memory regions containing floating point state information and potential unhandled exceptions during context switching operations. From an attack framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter and T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service, as it enables local users to cause system instability and potentially compromise service availability. The vulnerability's classification as local privilege escalation potential indicates that attackers with minimal system access can leverage this flaw to disrupt normal system operations and potentially escalate privileges through careful exploitation of the context switching mechanism.
Mitigation strategies should prioritize immediate patching of affected Solaris systems through official Oracle security updates, as this vulnerability represents a core kernel flaw requiring system-level intervention. Organizations should implement monitoring for abnormal process termination patterns and unexpected floating point calculation errors that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, system administrators should consider restricting local user access where possible and implementing process isolation techniques to minimize the potential impact of successful exploitation attempts. The vulnerability underscores the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date system patches and implementing comprehensive security monitoring for kernel-level vulnerabilities that can affect system stability and data integrity across enterprise environments.