CVE-2017-3551 in Solaris
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Solaris component of Oracle Sun Systems Products Suite (subcomponent: Smartcard Libraries). The supported version that is affected is 11.3. Easily "exploitable" vulnerability allows low privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Solaris executes to compromise Solaris. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized ability to cause a hang or frequently repeatable crash (complete DOS) of Solaris as well as unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Solaris accessible data and unauthorized read access to a subset of Solaris accessible data. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 6.6 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/20/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-3551 resides within the Solaris component of Oracle Sun Systems Products Suite, specifically within the Smartcard Libraries subcomponent. This flaw affects Solaris version 11.3 and represents a significant security weakness that can be exploited by attackers with minimal privileges. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that the attack vector requires little sophistication or specialized knowledge, making it particularly dangerous in environments where attackers might gain low-privileged access through legitimate means. The security implications extend beyond simple privilege escalation, as the flaw can be leveraged to execute a complete denial of service attack that can cause system hangs or frequent crashes, effectively rendering the affected system non-operational.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from weaknesses within the smartcard library implementation that governs how Solaris interacts with cryptographic smartcards and related security tokens. This flaw allows an attacker who has already established a logon session on the Solaris system to exploit the vulnerable component and gain unauthorized access to system resources. The vulnerability's impact spans all three fundamental security principles as defined by the CIA triad, with confidentiality, integrity, and availability all being compromised. The CVSS 3.0 score of 6.6 reflects the severity of these combined impacts, where the availability impact is particularly severe at a score of 8, indicating the potential for complete system disruption through denial of service conditions.
The operational consequences of exploiting CVE-2017-3551 can be devastating for organizations relying on Solaris systems, particularly those in environments where smartcard authentication is prevalent. Attackers can utilize this vulnerability to cause persistent system instability through repeated crashes or hangs, effectively disabling critical services and potentially causing significant business disruption. Additionally, the vulnerability enables unauthorized modification of system data through update, insert, and delete operations, while simultaneously providing read access to sensitive information that should remain protected. These capabilities can be leveraged to compromise the integrity of authentication mechanisms, steal sensitive data, or manipulate system configurations to maintain persistent access. The low privilege requirement for exploitation makes this vulnerability particularly concerning as it can be exploited by attackers who have gained minimal access through social engineering, credential theft, or other initial compromise techniques.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant Oracle security patches and updates to address the vulnerability in the Smartcard Libraries component. System administrators should also consider implementing additional monitoring and access controls to detect potential exploitation attempts, particularly focusing on unusual activity patterns in smartcard-related system calls. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-119 which describes weaknesses in memory safety, and could potentially map to ATT&CK techniques related to privilege escalation and denial of service. Network segmentation and least privilege access principles should be reinforced to minimize the potential impact if exploitation occurs, while regular security assessments of smartcard implementations should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in related cryptographic components.