Multiple Vendor Natural Language Service (NLS) Vulnerability
BID:711
Info
Multiple Vendor Natural Language Service (NLS) Vulnerability
| Bugtraq ID: | 711 |
| Class: | Boundary Condition Error |
| CVE: | |
| Remote: | Unknown |
| Local: | Yes |
| Published: | Feb 13 1997 12:00AM |
| Updated: | Feb 13 1997 12:00AM |
| Credit: | First posted to BugTraq by solar <[email protected]> on February 13, 1997. |
| Vulnerable: |
Slackware Linux 3.1 SGI IRIX 6.2 Redhat Linux 4.0 Linux libc 5.3.12 Linux libc 5.2.18 Linux libc 5.0.9 IBM AIX 4.2 IBM AIX 4.1 IBM AIX 3.2.5 Cray UNICOS/mk 1.5 Cray UNICOS MAX 1.3 Cray UNICOS 9.2 Cray UNICOS 9.0 |
| Not Vulnerable: |
Slackware Linux 3.2 Redhat Linux 4.1 Linux libc 5.4 Cray UNICOS/mk 1.5.1 Cray UNICOS MAX 1.3 .5 Cray UNICOS 9.2 .4 Cray UNICOS 9.0.2 .5 |
Discussion
Multiple Vendor Natural Language Service (NLS) Vulnerability
This description was taken from the CERT advisory:
A buffer overflow condition affects libraries using the Natural Language Service (NLS). The NLS is the component of UNIX systems that provides facilities for customizing the natural language formatting for the system. Examples of the types of characteristics that can be set are language, monetary symbols and delimiters, numeric delimiters, and time formats.
Some libraries that use a particular environment variable associated with the NLS contain a vulnerability in which a buffer overflow condition can be triggered. The particular environment variable involved is NLSPATH on some systems and PATH_LOCALE on others.
It is possible to exploit this vulnerability to attain unauthorized access by supplying carefully crafted arguments to programs that are owned by a privileged user-id and that have setuid or setgid bits set.
This description was taken from the CERT advisory:
A buffer overflow condition affects libraries using the Natural Language Service (NLS). The NLS is the component of UNIX systems that provides facilities for customizing the natural language formatting for the system. Examples of the types of characteristics that can be set are language, monetary symbols and delimiters, numeric delimiters, and time formats.
Some libraries that use a particular environment variable associated with the NLS contain a vulnerability in which a buffer overflow condition can be triggered. The particular environment variable involved is NLSPATH on some systems and PATH_LOCALE on others.
It is possible to exploit this vulnerability to attain unauthorized access by supplying carefully crafted arguments to programs that are owned by a privileged user-id and that have setuid or setgid bits set.
Solution / Fix
Multiple Vendor Natural Language Service (NLS) Vulnerability
Solution:
It is advised to install a vendor supplied fix or install a new version of the C library.
Solution:
It is advised to install a vendor supplied fix or install a new version of the C library.