Skip to main content

Warning! Unprivileged Linux Users With UID > INT_MAX Can Execute Any Command


Hold tight, this may blow your mind…

A low-privileged user account on most Linux operating systems with UID value anything greater than 2147483647 can execute any systemctl command unauthorizedly—thanks to a newly discovered vulnerability.

The reported vulnerability actually resides in PolicyKit (also known as polkit)—an application-level toolkit for Unix-like operating systems that defines policies, handles system-wide privileges and provides a way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged ones, such as "sudo," that does not grant root permission to an entire process.

The issue, tracked as CVE-2018-19788, impacts PolicyKit version 0.115 which comes pre-installed on most popular Linux distributions, including Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS.

The vulnerability exists due to PolicyKit's improper validation of permission requests for any low-privileged user with UID greater than INT_MAX.

Where, INT_MAX is a constant in computer programming that defines what maximum value an integer variable can store, which equals to 2147483647 (in hexadecimal 0x7FFFFFFF).

So it means, if you create a user account on affected Linux systems with any UID greater than INT_MAX value, the PolicyKit component will allow you to execute any systemctl command successfully.

Security researcher Rich Mirch, Twitter handle "0xm1rch," has also released a proof-of-concept(PoC) exploit to successfully demonstrate the vulnerability that requires a user with the UID 4000000000.

Red Hat has recommended system administrators not to allow any negative UIDs or UIDs greater than 2147483646 in order to mitigate the issue until the patch is released.

Have something to say about this article? Comment below or share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Information Security Analyst Interview Questions

Top 12 Information Security Analyst Interview Questions & Answers 1) Explain what is the role of information security analyst? From small to large companies role of information security analyst includes Implementing security measures to protect computer systems, data and networks Keep himself up-to-date with on the latest intelligence which includes hackers techniques as well Preventing data loss and service interruptions Testing of data processing system and performing risk assessments Installing various security software like firewalls, data encryption and other security measures Recommending security enhancements and purchases Planning, testing and implementing network disaster plans Staff training on information and network security procedures 2) Mention what is data leakage? What are the factors that can cause data leakage? The separation or departing of IP from its intended place of storage is known as data leakage.  The factors that are respons...
Post a Comment
Read more

Community Health Systems agrees to pay nearly $3.1 million as a part of settlement for 2014 data breach

The settlement covers a total of 4.5 million patients impacted in the breach. The cyber attack took place in April and June of 2014 and was orchestrated by a Chinese criminal group. Tennessee-based Community Health Systems has reached a settlement over a 2014 data breach that 4.5 million patients. A proposed amount of $3.1 million has been reached as a part of the settlement in a class action lawsuit filed against the healthcare. What happened? According to court records, the cyber attack took place in April and June of 2014 and was orchestrated by a Chinese criminal group, that solely focused on obtaining intellectual data. The hackers used an advanced malware and exfiltrated a variety of information such as patient names, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and phone numbers. However, no credit card details and medical details were affected in the breach. Following the breach, the healthcare firm had notified the patients about the breach. However, the...
Post a Comment
Read more
Phishing Campaigns Targeting Google and Yahoo Accounts To Bypassing Two-Factor Authentication Several phishing campaigns targeting hundreds of individuals across the Middle East and North Africa. The attacker targers HRDs, journalists, political actors. Amnesty International published a report on multiple campaigns that traget self-described “secure email” services, such as Tutanota and ProtonMail and another campaign that aimed in bypassing two-factor authentication. Crafted Phishing Sites – Secure Email Providers The phishing campaign primarily targeted popular secure email service providers such as Tutanota and ProtonMail. Threat actors used a well-crafted phishing page – by obtaining the domain tutanota[.]org, whereas the original domain of the service provider is tutanota[.]com. A phishing attack is one of the dangerous social engineering attacks that leads to capture a victim’s username and password that will get store it to an attacker machine and reuse it l...
Post a Comment
Read more