CVE-2011-4339 in OpenIPMI
Summary
by MITRE
ipmievd (aka the IPMI event daemon) in OpenIPMI, as used in the ipmitool package 1.8.11 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6, Debian GNU/Linux, Fedora 16, and other products uses 0666 permissions for its ipmievd.pid PID file, which allows local users to kill arbitrary processes by writing to this file.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/28/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-4339 affects the ipmievd daemon component within the OpenIPMI framework, which serves as a critical subsystem for managing IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) events in enterprise server environments. This daemon operates as a background service responsible for monitoring and handling IPMI events, making it a potential target for privilege escalation attacks. The issue specifically manifests in the pid file management where the daemon creates a file named ipmievd.pid with overly permissive 0666 permissions, allowing any local user to write to this file without proper authentication or authorization. This flaw exists in multiple enterprise Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Debian GNU/Linux, and Fedora 16, indicating a widespread exposure across various system configurations.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability stems from the fundamental flaw in file permission handling within the daemon's initialization process. When ipmievd creates its pid file, it assigns world-writable permissions (0666) which violates standard security practices for daemon pid files that should typically be owned by the daemon process and only writable by the process owner. An attacker can leverage this weakness by writing a specific process identifier to the pid file, effectively allowing them to manipulate the daemon's behavior and potentially execute arbitrary commands with elevated privileges. This type of vulnerability falls under the CWE-732 category of Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource, which directly addresses improper permissions that allow unauthorized access to system resources. The attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires minimal privileges to exploit and can lead to complete system compromise.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation as it provides attackers with a foothold for further system infiltration and persistent access. Local users who gain access to the system can leverage this vulnerability to manipulate the IPMI event daemon, potentially disrupting critical system monitoring functions or executing malicious code with the privileges of the daemon process. This creates a significant risk for enterprise environments where IPMI monitoring is critical for server health and security management, as attackers can effectively bypass the security controls that IPMI is designed to provide. The vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.003 for execution through command and scripting interpreter, where attackers can manipulate the daemon to execute malicious commands, and T1068 for privilege escalation through local exploitation of daemon processes. Organizations relying on IPMI-based monitoring systems face potential data breaches and system compromise when this vulnerability remains unpatched.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on immediate remediation through patching the affected ipmitool package versions, ensuring that the pid file permissions are properly restricted to only allow write access by the daemon process owner. System administrators should implement proper file permission auditing to identify other similar vulnerabilities in daemon configurations across the enterprise environment. The recommended solution involves setting appropriate permissions such as 0644 or 0600 for pid files, ensuring that only the owning process can modify these critical system files. Additionally, implementing proper monitoring and alerting for unauthorized modifications to critical daemon files will help detect potential exploitation attempts. Security teams should also consider implementing principle of least privilege configurations for all system services and regularly audit file permissions to prevent similar issues from occurring in other system components. Organizations should prioritize updating their systems to patched versions of the ipmitool package and conduct thorough security assessments to identify any other services that may be vulnerable to similar permission-related flaws.