Executive brief
The finger service on Data General DG/UX systems, which is used to provide information about users on a network, contains a security flaw. An attacker can use this service to run unauthorized commands on the server. This could lead to a complete system takeover, allowing the attacker to access sensitive data or disrupt operations.
Technical details
The finger daemon (fingerd) in Data General DG/UX is vulnerable to remote command execution. The vulnerability is caused by improper sanitization of input, allowing shell metacharacters to be passed to a command interpreter. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this by sending a specially crafted finger request containing shell metacharacters (such as semicolons or pipes) to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the finger daemon. This is a classic command injection vulnerability resulting from unsafe interaction with the system shell.
Affected products
- Data General DG/UX finger daemon DG/UX versions prior to August 1997
Timeline
- 1997-08-11: disclosed: Vulnerability published in NVD database.