CVE-2016-5492 in Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Kit AK
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Kit (AK) component in Oracle Sun Systems Products Suite AK 2013 allows local users to affect confidentiality and integrity via vectors related to SMB Users.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/14/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-5492 resides within the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Kit component of Oracle Sun Systems Products Suite AK 2013, representing a significant security weakness that affects local users with the ability to compromise both confidentiality and integrity of the system. This unspecified flaw manifests through vectors specifically related to SMB users, indicating that the vulnerability is directly tied to the Server Message Block protocol implementation within the ZFS storage appliance environment. The affected component operates as part of Oracle's broader storage infrastructure solution, where the ZFS Storage Appliance Kit provides enterprise-level storage management capabilities including file and block storage services through various protocols.
The technical nature of this vulnerability suggests that local attackers with access to the system can exploit weaknesses in the SMB user handling mechanisms to potentially read sensitive data or modify system configurations. This represents a critical compromise of both confidentiality and integrity principles within the CIA triad, as attackers could either access restricted information or alter system parameters to undermine the storage appliance's proper operation. The vulnerability's classification as local means that exploitation requires the attacker to already have some level of system access, potentially through legitimate user accounts or other initial compromise vectors, but once achieved, the impact extends to fundamental security controls. The SMB protocol implementation likely contains flaws in user authentication, session management, or access control enforcement that allow unauthorized data manipulation or disclosure.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses substantial risk to organizations relying on Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Kit for their data storage infrastructure. The compromise of confidentiality and integrity could result in data leakage, unauthorized modification of storage configurations, or potential disruption of storage services. Organizations using this appliance may experience unauthorized access to sensitive storage data, modification of file permissions, or corruption of storage metadata that could affect data availability and system reliability. The local nature of the vulnerability means that attackers typically need to establish a foothold on the system first, but once they achieve local access, they can leverage this weakness to escalate their privileges or access restricted resources that should remain protected. The impact extends beyond simple data compromise to potentially affecting the entire storage ecosystem managed by the appliance.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2016-5492 should focus on implementing the latest security patches provided by Oracle to address the SMB user handling flaws in the ZFS Storage Appliance Kit. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify systems running affected versions and ensure prompt patch deployment across all instances. Network segmentation and access control measures should be enhanced to limit local access privileges and reduce the attack surface. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-269 which addresses improper privilege management, and may relate to ATT&CK techniques involving privilege escalation and credential access. Additionally, organizations should implement monitoring solutions to detect anomalous SMB user activities and establish robust access control policies. Regular security audits and penetration testing should be conducted to verify that the implemented mitigations are effective and that no additional vulnerabilities exist within the storage appliance environment. System hardening measures including disabling unnecessary SMB services and implementing strong authentication mechanisms can further reduce the risk exposure associated with this vulnerability.