CVE-2008-4619 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
The RPC subsystem in Sun Solaris 9 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via a crafted request to procedure 8 in program 100000 (rpcbind), related to the XDR_DECODE operation and the taddr2uaddr function. NOTE: this might be a duplicate of CVE-2007-0165.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/08/2024
The vulnerability described in CVE-2008-4619 affects the Remote Procedure Call subsystem in Sun Solaris 9 operating systems, specifically targeting the rpcbind daemon that handles RPC service registration and discovery. This flaw represents a critical denial of service vulnerability that can be exploited by remote attackers to crash the rpcbind daemon, effectively disrupting RPC-based services and potentially impacting system availability. The vulnerability manifests when a specially crafted request is sent to procedure 8 within program 100000, which corresponds to the rpcbind program itself, making it a direct attack vector against core system services.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies within the XDR_DECODE operation and specifically the taddr2uaddr function implementation. XDR or External Data Representation is a standard data serialization mechanism used in RPC systems to encode and decode data structures for network transmission. When the rpcbind daemon processes a malformed request through the taddr2uaddr function, it fails to properly validate input parameters, leading to memory corruption or stack overflow conditions that ultimately cause the daemon to crash. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-125, which covers out-of-bounds read errors, both of which are common in RPC implementations where network data is parsed without adequate validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as the rpcbind daemon serves as a critical component in the RPC ecosystem of Solaris systems. When this daemon crashes, it affects all RPC services that depend on it for service registration and address resolution, potentially impacting file sharing, network authentication, and other critical system functions. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely without requiring authentication, making it particularly dangerous in networked environments where Solaris systems are exposed to untrusted networks. The vulnerability's classification aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks targeting system services.
The potential for exploitation is heightened by the fact that rpcbind typically runs with elevated privileges and is accessible over the network, providing attackers with a straightforward path to system disruption. Organizations running Solaris 9 systems are particularly vulnerable since this version lacks the security mitigations present in later releases. The vulnerability's relationship to CVE-2007-0165 suggests it may represent a variant of the same underlying issue, possibly affecting different RPC procedures within the same subsystem. System administrators should prioritize patching or implementing network-level mitigations to prevent exploitation, as the impact of such attacks can cascade through entire network infrastructures that depend on RPC services for communication between system components.