CVE-2009-0034: High severity Todd Miller Sudo vulnerability
It was discovered that sudo's sudoers file parses does not correctly handle group specification in RunasUser. If group was specified in the list (using syntax %group, to allow some user to run commands as any member of the group) and the user was already member of the group, sudo actually allowed the user to run commands as arbitrary system user.
SuSE and upstream bug report: https://bugzilla.novell.com/showbug.cgi?id=468923 http://www.gratisoft.us/bugzilla/showbug.cgi?id=327
This issue was confirmed on multiple 1.6.9 sudo versions. Latest upstream 1.7.0 was reported not to be affected, 1.6.8p12 previously shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 was not affected as well. Problem was confirmed on 1.6.9p17 in RHEL5 and Fedora 10.
Upstream patch:
Index: parse.c =================================================================== RCS file: /home/cvs/courtesan/sudo/parse.c,v retrieving revision 1.160.2.21 diff -u -r1.160.2.21 parse.c --- parse.c 2 Nov 2008 14:35:53 -0000 1.160.2.21 +++ parse.c 23 Jan 2009 19:16:55 -0000 @@ -651,9 +651,11 @@ / If the user has a supplementary group vector, check it first. / - for (i = 0; i < userngroups; i++) { - if (grp->grgid == usergroups[i]) - return(TRUE); + if (strcmp(user, username) == 0) { + for (i = 0; i < userngroups; i++) { + if (grp->grgid == usergroups[i]) + return(TRUE); + } } if (grp->grmem != NULL) { for (cur = grp->grmem; cur; cur++) {
Other sources
parse.c in sudo 1.6.9p17 through 1.6.9p19 does not properly interpret a system group (aka %group) in the sudoers file during authorization decisions for a user who belongs to that group, which allows local users to leverage an applicable sudoers file and gain root privileges via a sudo command.
— Red Hat
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
redhat/sudoto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 0:1.6.9p17-3.el5_3.1
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of CVE-2009-0034?
CVE-2009-0034 is classified as a moderate severity vulnerability.
How do I fix CVE-2009-0034?
To fix CVE-2009-0034, upgrade to sudo version 1.6.9_p18 or later.
What systems are affected by CVE-2009-0034?
CVE-2009-0034 affects specific versions of the sudo package on Linux systems and VMware ESX 4.0.
What type of vulnerability is CVE-2009-0034?
CVE-2009-0034 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the sudoers file handling.
Who discovered CVE-2009-0034?
CVE-2009-0034 was discovered by Todd Miller, the maintainer of sudo.