CVE-2012-1750 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in Oracle Sun Solaris 8, 9, 10, and 11 allows local users to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability via unknown vectors related to mailx.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/26/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-1750 represents a significant security weakness within Oracle Sun Solaris operating systems across multiple versions including 8, 9, 10, and 11. This issue specifically impacts the mailx utility which serves as a fundamental email client in Unix-based systems. The unspecified nature of the vulnerability vector makes it particularly concerning as it suggests potential for exploitation through various attack surfaces that may not be immediately apparent to security professionals. The affected confidentiality, integrity, and availability aspects indicate this vulnerability could enable attackers to compromise core system security properties. According to CWE classification, this would likely fall under CWE-119 which deals with improper restriction of operations within a recognized security boundary, or potentially CWE-20 which addresses improper input validation. The mailx utility in Solaris systems typically handles email processing and command execution, making it a potential attack vector for privilege escalation or data manipulation.
The technical flaw within the mailx utility stems from inadequate validation of input parameters and potential buffer overflow conditions or command injection opportunities that local users could exploit. These vulnerabilities in the email handling mechanism could allow unauthorized individuals with local system access to manipulate system resources, access restricted information, or disrupt normal system operations. The attack surface expands when considering that local users already possess system access, meaning the exploitation requires minimal initial privileges but could yield significant system compromise. The vulnerability's relationship to the mailx utility indicates potential issues with how the system processes email commands or handles specific input sequences that could trigger unintended behavior in the underlying system processes.
Operationally, this vulnerability presents a substantial risk to Solaris environments as local users could potentially leverage it to gain unauthorized access to system resources, modify critical data, or cause system disruptions. The impact extends beyond simple information disclosure as the combination of confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise suggests attackers could fully compromise system security. Organizations running these older Solaris versions face particular risk since the vulnerability affects multiple generations of the operating system, meaning legacy systems remain exposed to exploitation. The nature of local privilege escalation vulnerabilities means that even if users have basic access, they could potentially elevate their privileges to gain administrative control over the system, making this a critical concern for system administrators.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2012-1750 should prioritize immediate patching of affected Solaris systems through Oracle's security updates, as these vulnerabilities have been addressed in subsequent releases. System administrators should implement strict access controls to limit local user privileges and monitor for unusual mailx activity that might indicate exploitation attempts. The principle of least privilege should be enforced across all system accounts, particularly those with access to mailx functionality. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect potential exploitation attempts, while regular security audits should verify that mailx configurations do not expose unnecessary system capabilities. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability could be classified under T1068 which addresses exploit for privilege escalation, and T1566 which covers social engineering techniques that might be used to gain local access. Organizations should also consider implementing automated patch management systems to ensure timely deployment of security fixes across all Solaris installations.