IBM AIX lquerypv Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

iDefense Security Advisory 10.30.07
http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/
Oct 30, 2007

I. BACKGROUND

The lquerypv utility is used to examine the properties of a physical
volume in a volume group. It is installed set-uid root by default on
multiple versions of AIX.

II. DESCRIPTION

Local exploitation of a stack buffer overflow vulnerability in IBM
Corp.'s AIX operating system may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary
code with root privileges.

The vulnerability exists within the parsing of the '-V' command line
option. The argument to this option is copied into a fixed size stack
buffer using the sprintf() function without properly validating the
length. This leads to an exploitable stack buffer overflow.

III. ANALYSIS

Exploitation of this vulnerability results in the execution of arbitrary
code with root privileges. The binary may be executed by any user with a
local account, no special group membership is needed.

IV. DETECTION

iDefense has confirmed the existence of this vulnerability in AIX
version 5.2 and 5.3. Previous versions may also be affected.

V. WORKAROUND

Removing the set-uid bit from the binary will prevent exploitation, but
may make the program unusable by non-root users.

VI. VENDOR RESPONSE

IBM Corp. has addressed this vulnerability by releasing interim fixes.
More information can be found via the Bulletins tab of IBM's
Subscription Service for UNIX and Linux servers. You can reach this
service by clicking the URL shown below.

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/subscriptions/pqvcmjd?mode=1

VII. CVE INFORMATION

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
name CVE-2007-4513 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in
the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for
security problems.

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE

08/21/2007  Initial vendor notification
08/22/2007  Initial vendor response
10/30/2007  Coordinated public disclosure

IX. CREDIT

This vulnerability was discovered by Sean Larsson of VeriSign iDefense
Labs.

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X. LEGAL NOTICES

Copyright © 2007 iDefense, Inc.

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