CVE-2009-3002 - Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Severity

49%

Complexity

39%

Confidentiality

115%

The Linux kernel before 2.6.31-rc7 does not initialize certain data structures within getname functions, which allows local users to read the contents of some kernel memory locations by calling getsockname on (1) an AF_APPLETALK socket, related to the atalk_getname function in net/appletalk/ddp.c; (2) an AF_IRDA socket, related to the irda_getname function in net/irda/af_irda.c; (3) an AF_ECONET socket, related to the econet_getname function in net/econet/af_econet.c; (4) an AF_NETROM socket, related to the nr_getname function in net/netrom/af_netrom.c; (5) an AF_ROSE socket, related to the rose_getname function in net/rose/af_rose.c; or (6) a raw CAN socket, related to the raw_getname function in net/can/raw.c.

The Linux kernel before 2.6.31-rc7 does not initialize certain data structures within getname functions, which allows local users to read the contents of some kernel memory locations by calling getsockname on (1) an AF_APPLETALK socket, related to the atalk_getname function in net/appletalk/ddp.c; (2) an AF_IRDA socket, related to the irda_getname function in net/irda/af_irda.c; (3) an AF_ECONET socket, related to the econet_getname function in net/econet/af_econet.c; (4) an AF_NETROM socket, related to the nr_getname function in net/netrom/af_netrom.c; (5) an AF_ROSE socket, related to the rose_getname function in net/rose/af_rose.c; or (6) a raw CAN socket, related to the raw_getname function in net/can/raw.c.

CVSS 2.0 Base Score 4.9. CVSS Attack Vector: local. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N).

Demo Examples

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

The following code checks validity of the supplied username and password and notifies the user of a successful or failed login.


               
}
}
print "Login Successful";
print "Login Failed - incorrect password";
print "Login Failed - unknown username";

In the above code, there are different messages for when an incorrect username is supplied, versus when the username is correct but the password is wrong. This difference enables a potential attacker to understand the state of the login function, and could allow an attacker to discover a valid username by trying different values until the incorrect password message is returned. In essence, this makes it easier for an attacker to obtain half of the necessary authentication credentials.

While this type of information may be helpful to a user, it is also useful to a potential attacker. In the above example, the message for both failed cases should be the same, such as:


               
"Login Failed - incorrect username or password"

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

This code tries to open a database connection, and prints any exceptions that occur.


               
}
openDbConnection();
//print exception message that includes exception message and configuration file location
echo 'Check credentials in config file at: ', $Mysql_config_location, '\n';

If an exception occurs, the printed message exposes the location of the configuration file the script is using. An attacker can use this information to target the configuration file (perhaps exploiting a Path Traversal weakness). If the file can be read, the attacker could gain credentials for accessing the database. The attacker may also be able to replace the file with a malicious one, causing the application to use an arbitrary database.

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

In the example below, the method getUserBankAccount retrieves a bank account object from a database using the supplied username and account number to query the database. If an SQLException is raised when querying the database, an error message is created and output to a log file.


               
}
return userAccount;
}
userAccount = (BankAccount)queryResult.getObject(accountNumber);
Logger.getLogger(BankManager.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, logMessage, ex);

The error message that is created includes information about the database query that may contain sensitive information about the database or query logic. In this case, the error message will expose the table name and column names used in the database. This data could be used to simplify other attacks, such as SQL injection (CWE-89) to directly access the database.

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

This code stores location information about the current user:


               
}...
Log.e("ExampleActivity", "Caught exception: " + e + " While on User:" + User.toString());

When the application encounters an exception it will write the user object to the log. Because the user object contains location information, the user's location is also written to the log.

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

The following is an actual MySQL error statement:


               
Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Access denied for user: 'root@localhost' (Using password: N1nj4) in /usr/local/www/wi-data/includes/database.inc on line 4

The error clearly exposes the database credentials.

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

This code displays some information on a web page.


               
Social Security Number: <%= ssn %></br>Credit Card Number: <%= ccn %>

The code displays a user's credit card and social security numbers, even though they aren't absolutely necessary.

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

The following program changes its behavior based on a debug flag.


               
} %>

The code writes sensitive debug information to the client browser if the "debugEnabled" flag is set to true .

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

CWE-200

This code uses location to determine the user's current US State location.

First the application must declare that it requires the ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission in the application's manifest.xml:


               
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>

During execution, a call to getLastLocation() will return a location based on the application's location permissions. In this case the application has permission for the most accurate location possible:


               
deriveStateFromCoords(userCurrLocation);

While the application needs this information, it does not need to use the ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission, as the ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permission will be sufficient to identify which US state the user is in.

Overview

Type

Linux

First reported 15 years ago

2009-08-28 15:30:00

Last updated 6 years ago

2018-11-16 15:43:00

Affected Software

Linux Kernel

Linux Kernel 2.6.31 Release Candidate 1

2.6.31

Linux Kernel 2.6.31 Release Candidate 2

2.6.31

Linux Kernel 2.6.31 Release Candidate 3

2.6.31

Linux Kernel 2.6.31 Release Candidate 4

2.6.31

Linux Kernel 2.6.31 Release Candidate 5

2.6.31

Linux Kernel 2.6.31 Release Candidate 6

2.6.31

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 6.06 LTS (Long-Term Support)

6.06

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support)

8.04

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 8.10

8.10

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 9.04

9.04

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=09384dfc76e526c3993c09c42e016372dc9dd22c

Vendor Advisory

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=17ac2e9c58b69a1e25460a568eae1b0dc0188c25

Vendor Advisory

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=3d392475c873c10c10d6d96b94d092a34ebd4791

Vendor Advisory

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=80922bbb12a105f858a8f0abb879cb4302d0ecaa

Vendor Advisory

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=e84b90ae5eb3c112d1f208964df1d8156a538289

Vendor Advisory

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=f6b97b29513950bfbf621a83d85b6f86b39ec8db

Vendor Advisory

SUSE-SA:2009:054

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory

SUSE-SA:2009:056

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory

SUSE-SA:2010:012

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory

36438

Third Party Advisory

37105

Third Party Advisory

37351

Third Party Advisory

9521

Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/ChangeLog-2.6.31-rc7

Vendor Advisory

[oss-security] 20090827 Re: CVE request: kernel: AF_LLC getsockname 5-Byte Stack Disclosure

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory

[oss-security] 20090827 Re: CVE request: kernel: AF_LLC getsockname 5-Byte Stack Disclosure

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory

20100625 VMSA-2010-0010 ESX 3.5 third party update for Service Console kernel

Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry

36150

Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry

USN-852-1

Third Party Advisory

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=519305

Exploit, Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory

oval:org.mitre.oval:def:11611

Third Party Advisory

oval:org.mitre.oval:def:11741

Third Party Advisory

RHSA-2009:1540

Third Party Advisory

RHSA-2009:1550

Third Party Advisory

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