CVE-2008-3389 in Ingres
Summary
by MITRE
Stack-based buffer overflow in the libbecompat library in Ingres 2.6, Ingres 2006 release 1 (aka 9.0.4), and Ingres 2006 release 2 (aka 9.1.0) on Linux and HP-UX allows local users to gain privileges by setting a long value of an environment variable before running (1) verifydb, (2) iimerge, or (3) csreport.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/17/2015
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-3389 represents a critical stack-based buffer overflow within the libbecompat library of several Ingres database versions including 2.6, 9.0.4, and 9.1.0 across Linux and HP-UX platforms. This flaw exists in the way these database utilities handle environment variables during execution, creating a potential privilege escalation vector for local attackers. The affected utilities verifydb, iimerge, and csreport all share this common vulnerability in their environment variable processing mechanisms, making them susceptible to exploitation through carefully crafted input values.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking within the libbecompat library's handling of environment variables. When these utilities are executed with a specially crafted, excessively long environment variable value, the stack buffer allocated for processing this variable becomes overflowed, potentially overwriting adjacent memory locations including return addresses and control data. This buffer overflow condition directly violates the principles of secure coding practices and aligns with CWE-121, which specifically addresses stack-based buffer overflow conditions. The vulnerability's exploitation requires local system access and involves manipulating environment variables before executing the vulnerable binaries, making it a local privilege escalation issue rather than a remote attack vector.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple code execution, as successful exploitation can result in privilege escalation from regular user to root or database administrator levels. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to sensitive database information, modify database structures, or potentially establish persistent access to the system. The exploitation process involves setting a maliciously long environment variable value that triggers the buffer overflow during program initialization, which then allows attackers to manipulate the program execution flow. This creates a significant security risk for systems running these specific Ingres versions, particularly in environments where local users might have access to execute these utilities.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2008-3389 should focus on immediate patching of affected Ingres installations to the latest available versions that contain fixes for this buffer overflow vulnerability. System administrators should also implement proper environment variable validation and sanitization procedures to prevent overly long values from being processed by these utilities. The principle of least privilege should be enforced by limiting execution permissions for the vulnerable utilities and ensuring that only authorized users have access to these programs. Additionally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual environment variable values being set before execution of database utilities, as outlined in the ATT&CK framework's privilege escalation techniques. Organizations should also consider implementing runtime protections such as stack canaries or address space layout randomization to make exploitation more difficult, though these measures provide defense-in-depth rather than complete remediation of the underlying vulnerability.