Title: AIX diagrpt Arbitrary Privileged Program Execution Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
AIX ships with a diagnostic reporting utility called 'diagrpt'. This utility is installed setuid root by default.
When 'diagrpt' executes, it relies on an environment variable to locate another utility which it executes. The environmnt variable 'DIAGDATADIR' specifies where the executable resides.
Because environment variables can be set by users, malicious local users can have 'diagrpt' execute any program they want. If the value of 'DIAGDATADIR' is a directory under their control, attackers can place within it a malicious 'replacement' program of the same name.
When 'diagrpt' executes, this utility is executed with root privileges.
An attacker can gain superuser access by creating a program that will, for example, make a shell setuid. Once this program runs as root, the system will be compromised.
Affected Products:
- IBM AIX 4.3.0
- IBM AIX 4.3.1
- IBM AIX 4.3.2
- IBM AIX 4.3.3
- IBM AIX 5.1.0
References:
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