Executive brief
A security vulnerability exists in the Solaris utility used for formatting floppy disks. A local user with access to the system can exploit this flaw to gain full administrative control (root access). This allows an unauthorized individual to access any data on the machine, modify system files, or disrupt operations.
Technical details
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the fdformat utility within Sun Solaris/SunOS. The flaw is triggered by providing specially crafted input to the command, which fails to perform adequate bounds checking. Because fdformat typically runs with elevated privileges to interact with hardware, a successful exploit allows a local, unprivileged attacker to execute arbitrary code with root permissions. The vulnerability affects multiple versions of Solaris ranging from 2.3 to 7.0. Patch information was historically provided in Sun Security Bulletin #138.
Affected products
- Sun Microsystems Solaris 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1, 7.0
- Sun Microsystems SunOS 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.7
Timeline
- 1997-04-01: disclosed: Initial publication date