MySQL World-Writable Configuration File May Let Local Users Gain Root Privileges
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SecurityTracker Alert ID: 1007312
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CVE Reference: CAN-2003-0150
(Links to External Site)
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Date: Jul 28 2003
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Impact: Root access via local system, User access via local system
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Fix Available: Yes
Exploit Included: Yes
Vendor Confirmed: Yes
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Version(s): 3.23.55 and prior versions
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Description: An access control vulnerability was reported in MySQL. A local user may be able to gain root privileges on the system.
It is reported that a local user can use a "SELECT * INTO OUTFILE" statement to overwrite a world-writable 'datadir/my.cnf' file
with the following contents:
[mysqld]
user=root
The report indicats that the MySQL server will invoke the 'my.cnf' file in
the data directory, if it exists, rather than the '/etc/my.cnf' file. So, when the mysqld daemon is subsequently started, it will
be started with root privileges instead of the privileges of the default mysql user. The local user may be able to invoke MySQL
to gain root privileges.
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Impact: A local user can cause the MySQL daemon to start with root privileges instead of the normal MySQL user privileges. This may allow the local user to gain root privileges or mysql user privileges on the system.
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Solution: The vendor has released a fixed version (3.23.56), available at:
http://www.mysql.com/downloads/index.html
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Vendor URL: www.mysql.com/ (Links to External Site)
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Cause: Access control error, State error
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Underlying OS: Linux (Any), UNIX (Any)
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Reported By: "bugsman@libero.it" <bugsman@libero.it>
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Message History:
None.
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Source Message Contents
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Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 12:58:37 +0100
From: "bugsman@libero.it" <bugsman@libero.it>
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?MySQL_user_can_be_changed_to_root?=
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Hi. I tried this on my own MySQL 3.23.55 !!!
I found out that logging as the root user, we can change mysqld to run as root instead that i.e. mysq
l but this works only if there's
just one my.cnf file and it is locate in /etc...
Here's how I did it...
I logged in as root and than I did this:
mysql>CREATE DATABASE roottext;
mysql>USE roottext;
mysql>CREATE TABLE hack (conf VARCHAR(80));
mysql>INSERT IN hack VALUES ('[mysqld]');
mysql>INSERT IN hack VALUES ('user=root');
mysql>SELECT * INTO OUTFILE '/path/to/mysql/datadir/my.cnf' FROM hack
mysql>QUIT
Doing so we have create a my.cnf in mysql datadir containing:
[mysqld]
user=root
Now, when the mysql server will be restarted, the user option in our datadit my.cnf will override the
one in /etc/my.cnf and mysql
server will run as root, with all the security flwas that it takes...
This is very dangerous if we think that in mysql <= 3.23.53 it is really easy to get root access d
ue to a bug (an exploit has been
released publicly)...
I dunno how this problem can be solved, I'd like to hear from you something...
Thanks.... :)
by
Gufino
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