[SA22119] IBM AIX "utape" Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

TITLE:
IBM AIX "utape" Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

SECUNIA ADVISORY ID:
SA22119

VERIFY ADVISORY:
http://secunia.com/advisories/22119/

CRITICAL:
Less critical

IMPACT:
Privilege escalation

WHERE:
Local system

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

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

The vulnerabilities are due to unspecified errors in the "utape"
command. These can be exploited by users that have the "Diagnostics"
role and are in the "system" group to overwrite arbitrary system
files, or to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges.

SOLUTION:
Apply Interim fixes until APARs are available.

Interim fix:
ftp://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/utape_ifix.tar.Z

APAR for AIX 5.2.0:
Apply IY88641 (available approx. 2006-10-18).

APAR for AIX 5.3.0:
Apply IY88642 (available approx. 2006-11-01).

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

ORIGINAL ADVISORY:
IBM:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IY88641
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IY88642

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