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TITLE:
IBM AIX "swcons" Command Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

SECUNIA ADVISORY ID:
SA31739

VERIFY ADVISORY:
http://secunia.com/advisories/31739/

CRITICAL:
Not critical

IMPACT:
Privilege escalation

WHERE:
Local system

OPERATING SYSTEM:
AIX 5.x
http://secunia.com/product/213/
AIX 6.x
http://secunia.com/product/16995/

DESCRIPTION:
A vulnerability has been reported in IBM AIX, which can be exploited
by malicious, local users to gain escalated privileges.

The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the "swcons" command,
which can be exploited to create files that are owned by root and
have insecure permissions.

Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code with root
privileges, but requires that an attacker is member of the "system"
group.

This is related to vulnerability #7 in:
SA27437

The vulnerability is reported in AIX 5.2, 5.3, and 6.1.

SOLUTION:
Apply fixes or APARs as soon as they become available.

http://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/swcons_fix.tar
ftp://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/swcons_fix.tar

AIX 5.2.0:
APAR IZ18335

AIX 5.3.0:
APAR IZ18339 (10/29/2008)

AIX 5.3.7:
APAR IZ18338 (10/29/2008)

AIX 5.3.8:
APAR IZ18334 (10/29/2008)

AIX 6.1.0:
APAR IZ18341 (11/19/2008)

AIX 6.1.1:
APAR IZ28943 (11/19/2008)

PROVIDED AND/OR DISCOVERED BY:
Reported by the vendor.

ORIGINAL ADVISORY:
http://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/swcons_advisory.asc

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ18335
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ18339
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ18338
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ18334
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ18341
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ28943

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About:
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