PostgreSQL up to 9.6.16/10.11/11.6/12.1 ALTER improper authorization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in PostgreSQL up to 9.6.16/10.11/11.6/12.1. This affects an unknown part of the component ALTER Handler. The manipulation leads to improper authorization. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2020-1720. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in PostgreSQL up to 9.6.16/10.11/11.6/12.1 (Database Software). This issue affects some unknown functionality of the component ALTER Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a improper authorization vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-285. The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A flaw was found in PostgreSQL's "ALTER ... DEPENDS ON EXTENSION", where sub-commands did not perform authorization checks. An authenticated attacker could use this flaw in certain configurations to perform drop objects such as function, triggers, et al., leading to database corruption. This issue affects PostgreSQL versions before 12.2, before 11.7, before 10.12 and before 9.6.17.

The weakness was shared 03/17/2020 as not defined bug report (Bugzilla). The advisory is shared at bugzilla.redhat.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2020-1720 since 11/27/2019. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The attack may be initiated remotely. A simple authentication is required for exploitation. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1548.002 for this issue.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 236609 (Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 : 0017: postgresql:12 (ALINUX3-SA-2021:0017)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 9.6.17, 10.12, 11.7 or 12.2 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (236609). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Database Software

Name

• PostgreSQL

Version

• 9.6.0
• 9.6.1
• 9.6.2
• 9.6.3
• 9.6.4
• 9.6.5
• 9.6.6
• 9.6.7
• 9.6.8
• 9.6.9
• 9.6.10
• 9.6.11
• 9.6.12
• 9.6.13
• 9.6.14
• 9.6.15
• 9.6.16
• 10.0
• 10.1
• 10.2
• 10.3
• 10.4
• 10.5
• 10.6
• 10.7
• 10.8
• 10.9
• 10.10
• 10.11
• 11.0
• 11.1
• 11.2
• 11.3
• 11.4
• 11.5
• 11.6
• 12.0
• 12.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://www.postgresql.org/

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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