CVE-2015-4776 in Berkeley DB
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Data Store component in Oracle Berkeley DB 11.2.5.1.29, 11.2.5.2.42, 11.2.5.3.28, and 12.1.6.0.35 allows local users to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability via unknown vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-2583, CVE-2015-2624, CVE-2015-2626, CVE-2015-2640, CVE-2015-2654, CVE-2015-2656, CVE-2015-4754, CVE-2015-4764, CVE-2015-4775, CVE-2015-4777, CVE-2015-4778, CVE-2015-4780, CVE-2015-4781, CVE-2015-4782, CVE-2015-4783, CVE-2015-4784, CVE-2015-4785, CVE-2015-4786, CVE-2015-4787, CVE-2015-4789, and CVE-2015-4790.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/14/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-4776 represents a significant security flaw within Oracle Berkeley DB's Data Store component, affecting multiple versions including 11.2.5.1.29, 11.2.5.2.42, 11.2.5.3.28, and 12.1.6.0.35. This issue falls under the category of unspecified vulnerabilities, indicating that the exact technical mechanism remains undisclosed in the public CVE description, which is common for certain classes of vulnerabilities that may involve complex interactions between multiple system components. The Data Store component serves as a critical foundation for database operations, making this vulnerability particularly concerning for systems relying on Berkeley DB for data management and storage.
The impact of this vulnerability extends across all three fundamental principles of information security: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Local users can potentially exploit this weakness to compromise sensitive data, modify database contents, or disrupt system operations entirely. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors suggests that the vulnerability may involve multiple pathways including memory corruption issues, improper access controls, or flawed input validation mechanisms within the Data Store component. This broad impact scope aligns with common patterns seen in database engine vulnerabilities where a single flaw can create cascading effects across multiple security domains.
From an operational perspective, systems utilizing affected Berkeley DB versions face substantial risk exposure, particularly in environments where local privilege escalation is possible or where attackers have access to systems running these database components. The vulnerability's classification as local means that exploitation typically requires an attacker to already have some level of system access, but once achieved, the potential damage can be severe. The fact that this vulnerability is distinct from numerous other CVEs in the same timeframe indicates it represents a unique flaw in the Data Store implementation rather than a common pattern of database security issues.
The technical implications of this vulnerability align with CWE categories related to unspecified software weaknesses, particularly those involving data storage and retrieval mechanisms. Attackers may leverage this weakness to execute unauthorized data access, modify database structures, or potentially cause system instability through resource exhaustion or memory corruption. The attack surface for this vulnerability includes all applications and services that utilize Oracle Berkeley DB's Data Store functionality, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where database systems serve as foundational infrastructure components.
Security practitioners should consider this vulnerability as part of a broader assessment of database security posture, implementing comprehensive monitoring and access control measures. The vulnerability's unspecified nature makes traditional signature-based detection approaches challenging, requiring more sophisticated behavioral analysis and anomaly detection systems. Organizations should prioritize patch management efforts to upgrade to unaffected versions of Oracle Berkeley DB, while also implementing network segmentation and privilege separation to limit potential exploitation scenarios. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining up-to-date database software and understanding the specific attack surfaces presented by different database engine components, particularly those handling core data storage functions that are fundamental to enterprise information systems.