CVE-2015-4920 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in Oracle Sun Solaris 11 allows local users to affect integrity via vectors related to NDMP Backup Service.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/05/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-4920 resides within Oracle Sun Solaris 11 operating system and represents a security weakness in the NDMP Backup Service component that enables local attackers to compromise system integrity. This flaw falls under the broader category of local privilege escalation vulnerabilities where malicious actors with local access can manipulate system functions to gain unauthorized control over critical data and system operations. The NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol) Backup Service is designed to facilitate backup operations across networked storage devices, but this particular vulnerability creates an avenue for integrity violations that could lead to data corruption or unauthorized modifications of backup processes.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control mechanisms within the NDMP Backup Service implementation. Local users can exploit this weakness through carefully crafted inputs or commands that manipulate the service's behavior to alter backup configurations, modify backup data, or inject malicious operations into the backup process. The flaw likely involves improper handling of user-supplied parameters or insufficient privilege checks during backup service operations, allowing attackers to bypass normal security controls that should prevent unauthorized modifications to backup processes. This type of vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control, and represents a classic case of insufficient privilege separation within system services.
From an operational perspective, the impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data integrity concerns to potentially compromise entire backup strategies and recovery procedures. Attackers who successfully exploit this weakness could manipulate backup data to hide malicious activities, corrupt backup images to prevent system recovery, or inject malicious code into backup processes that would execute during subsequent restore operations. The local nature of the attack means that any user with login access to the system could potentially exploit this vulnerability, making it particularly dangerous in environments where multiple users share system resources or where accounts might be compromised through other attack vectors. This vulnerability directly impacts the CIA triad, specifically targeting integrity by allowing unauthorized modifications to backup operations and data.
Organizations should implement several mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability effectively. Immediate patching through Oracle's security updates represents the primary defense mechanism, as these updates typically include fixes for the specific input validation and access control issues that enable this exploitation. System administrators should also consider implementing additional monitoring of NDMP service activities and establishing baseline configurations for backup processes that can detect unauthorized modifications. Network segmentation and least privilege principles should be enforced to limit local user access to system components, while regular audit trails of backup operations should be maintained to detect potential exploitation attempts. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of securing all system components, including backup services, and aligns with ATT&CK framework techniques related to privilege escalation and persistence through backup service manipulation. The remediation approach should also include regular security assessments of system services to identify similar weaknesses in other components that might provide alternative attack vectors for compromising system integrity.