TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

IBM Informix Dynamic Server DBPATH Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

ZDI-08-011: March 13th, 2008

CVE ID

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

    Informix

TippingPoint™ IPS Customer Protection

TippingPoint IPS customers are protected against this vulnerability by Digital Vaccine protection filter ID 5723. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on systems with vulnerable installations of IBM's Informix Dynamic Server. User interaction is not required to exploit this vulnerability. Authentication is required in that an attacker must have database connection priviliges.

The specific flaw exists in the oninit.exe process that listens by default on TCP port 1526. During authentication, the process does not validate the length of the DBPATH variable. An attacker can provide a overly long variable name and overflow a global buffer, overwriting function pointers leading to arbitrary code execution.

Vendor Response

IBM states:

IBM has released an update available at the following URLs:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IC55208
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IC55207


Disclosure Timeline

    2007-11-07 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2008-03-13 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Anonymous