Executive brief
A critical vulnerability exists in the statd service, a component used in older Unix-based operating systems to monitor network status. An attacker can exploit this flaw over the network to gain full administrative control (root access) of the affected system. This could lead to complete data theft, system destruction, or unauthorized access to the corporate network.
Technical details
This vulnerability is a classic buffer overflow within the statd (Network Status Monitor) daemon. The flaw is triggered when the service improperly handles specially crafted input, leading to memory corruption. Because statd typically runs with high privileges, a remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this over the network to execute arbitrary code with root authority. The vulnerability affects multiple versions of SunOS and Solaris. Patches were historically released by the vendor to address the bounds-checking failure in the affected component.
Affected products
- Sun Solaris 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1
- Sun SunOS 5.4, 5.5, 5.5.1
Timeline
- 1997-12-05: disclosed
- 1997-12-05: advisory