Covert Channel Security Vulnerability in the Solaris Kernel

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Covert Channel Security Vulnerability in the Solaris Kernel:

1. Impact

A security vulnerability with system calls in the Solaris Kernel may allow two unprivileged local user processes to establish a covert communication channel bypassing system restrictions such as the multi-level security policy found in Solaris Trusted Extensions or the isolation policy implemented using zones(5) or chroot(2).

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 without patch 117350-56
• Solaris 9 without patch 122300-30
• Solaris 10 without patch 137111-05
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_01 through snv_89
  

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 without patch 117351-56
• Solaris 9 without patch 122301-30
• Solaris 10 without patch 137112-05
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_01 through snv_89
  

Note: OpenSolaris distributions may include additional bug fixes above and beyond the build from which it was derived.

To determine the base build of  OpenSolaris, the following command can be used:

    $ uname -v
    snv_94

3. Symptoms

There are no predictable symptoms that would indicate the described issue has been exploited to establish a covert communication channel.

4. Workaround

There is no workaround for this issue. Please see the Resolution section below.

5. Resolution

This issue is resolved in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 117350-56 or later
  
• Solaris 9 with patch 122300-30 or later
  
• Solaris 10 with patch 137111-05 or later
  
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_90 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 117351-56 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 122301-30 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 137112-05 or later
• OpenSolaris based upon builds snv_90 or later

For more information on Security Sun Alerts, see Technical Instruction ID 213557.

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Modification History

28-Aug-2008: Updated the Resolution section

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