CVE-2017-3497 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Solaris component of Oracle Sun Systems Products Suite (subcomponent: Remote Administration Daemon). The supported version that is affected is 11.3. Easily "exploitable" vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via multiple protocols to compromise Solaris. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Solaris accessible data as well as unauthorized read access to a subset of Solaris accessible data and unauthorized ability to cause a partial denial of service (partial DOS) of Solaris. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 7.3 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/20/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-3497 resides within the Remote Administration Daemon (RAD) component of Oracle Sun Systems Products Suite, specifically affecting Solaris version 11.3. This represents a critical security flaw that undermines the integrity and confidentiality of enterprise systems running Solaris operating environments. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that attackers require minimal prerequisites to launch successful attacks, making it particularly dangerous in production environments where system exposure is high. The Remote Administration Daemon serves as a crucial management interface for Solaris systems, facilitating remote administration tasks and system monitoring activities. This makes the vulnerability particularly concerning as it directly impacts the foundational management capabilities of the operating system.
The technical nature of CVE-2017-3497 stems from insufficient authentication mechanisms within the Remote Administration Daemon implementation. Attackers can leverage this weakness through multiple network protocols without requiring prior authentication credentials, exploiting a fundamental flaw in the daemon's access control architecture. The vulnerability manifests as a failure to properly validate incoming requests, allowing malicious actors to inject unauthorized commands directly into the system's management interface. This flaw operates at the protocol level, where network traffic containing malicious payloads can bypass normal authentication procedures and gain elevated privileges within the system. The CVSS 3.0 score of 7.3 reflects the severity of impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability dimensions, indicating that successful exploitation can result in substantial damage to system operations and data protection mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, encompassing multiple attack vectors that can severely compromise system integrity. An unauthenticated attacker can execute unauthorized modifications to system data through update, insert, or delete operations, potentially corrupting critical system configurations or user data. Additionally, the vulnerability enables unauthorized read access to sensitive system information, allowing attackers to gather intelligence about system configurations, user accounts, and operational parameters. The partial denial of service component of this vulnerability means that attackers can disrupt system availability by targeting specific services or processes within the Remote Administration Daemon, creating operational disruptions that can affect business continuity. This comprehensive attack surface makes CVE-2017-3497 particularly dangerous as it can be exploited to achieve multiple objectives simultaneously.
Security professionals should recognize this vulnerability as aligning with CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues within system components. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under privilege escalation and persistence techniques, as attackers can use the compromised daemon to establish long-term access to target systems. Organizations should implement immediate network segmentation to isolate Solaris systems from untrusted networks, deploy intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious daemon activity, and apply the relevant Oracle security patches as soon as they become available. The vulnerability's network accessibility nature necessitates comprehensive firewall rules to restrict access to the Remote Administration Daemon ports, while also implementing strong monitoring protocols to detect unauthorized access attempts. System administrators should conduct thorough audits of system configurations and implement robust logging mechanisms to track all administrative activities within the Solaris environment, ensuring that any unauthorized access attempts are promptly detected and investigated.