MySQL 5.0.51a allows local users to bypass certain privilege checks by calling CREATE TABLE on a MyISAM table with modified (1) DATA DIRECTORY or (2) INDEX DIRECTORY arguments that are associated with symlinks within pathnames for subdirectories of the MySQL home data directory, which are followed when tables are created in the future. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2008-2079.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2010:0110 :

Updated mysql packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

MySQL is a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. It consists of the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) and many client programs and libraries.

Multiple flaws were discovered in the way MySQL handled symbolic links to tables created using the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY directives in CREATE TABLE statements. An attacker with CREATE and DROP table privileges and shell access to the database server could use these flaws to escalate their database privileges, or gain access to tables created by other database users. (CVE-2008-4098, CVE-2009-4030)

Note: Due to the security risks and previous security issues related to the use of the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY directives, users not depending on this feature should consider disabling it by adding 'symbolic-links=0' to the '[mysqld]' section of the 'my.cnf' configuration file. In this update, an example of such a configuration was added to the default 'my.cnf' file.

An insufficient HTML entities quoting flaw was found in the mysql command line client's HTML output mode. If an attacker was able to inject arbitrary HTML tags into data stored in a MySQL database, which was later retrieved using the mysql command line client and its HTML output mode, they could perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims viewing the HTML output in a web browser.
(CVE-2008-4456)

Multiple format string flaws were found in the way the MySQL server logged user commands when creating and deleting databases. A remote, authenticated attacker with permissions to CREATE and DROP databases could use these flaws to formulate a specially crafted SQL command that would cause a temporary denial of service (open connections to mysqld are terminated). (CVE-2009-2446)

Note: To exploit the CVE-2009-2446 flaws, the general query log (the mysqld '--log' command line option or the 'log' option in 'my.cnf') must be enabled. This logging is not enabled by default.

All MySQL users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues. After installing this update, the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) will be restarted automatically.

Updated mysql packages that fix various security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

MySQL is a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. It consists of the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) and many client programs and libraries.

MySQL did not correctly check directories used as arguments for the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY directives. Using this flaw, an authenticated attacker could elevate their access privileges to tables created by other database users. Note: This attack does not work on existing tables. An attacker can only elevate their access to another user's tables as the tables are created. As well, the names of these created tables need to be predicted correctly for this attack to succeed. (CVE-2008-2079)

A flaw was found in the way MySQL handles an empty bit-string literal.
A remote, authenticated attacker could crash the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) if they used an empty bit-string literal in a SQL statement.
This issue only caused a temporary denial of service, as the MySQL daemon was automatically restarted after the crash. (CVE-2008-3963)

An insufficient HTML entities quoting flaw was found in the mysql command line client's HTML output mode. If an attacker was able to inject arbitrary HTML tags into data stored in a MySQL database, which was later retrieved using the mysql command line client and its HTML output mode, they could perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims viewing the HTML output in a web browser.
(CVE-2008-4456)

Multiple format string flaws were found in the way the MySQL server logs user commands when creating and deleting databases. A remote, authenticated attacker with permissions to CREATE and DROP databases could use these flaws to formulate a specifically-crafted SQL command that would cause a temporary denial of service (open connections to mysqld are terminated). (CVE-2009-2446)

Note: To exploit the CVE-2009-2446 flaws, the general query log (the mysqld '--log' command line option or the 'log' option in '/etc/my.cnf') must be enabled. This logging is not enabled by default.

This update also fixes multiple bugs. Details regarding these bugs can be found in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Technical Notes. You can find a link to the Technical Notes in the References section of this errata.

Note: These updated packages upgrade MySQL to version 5.0.77 to incorporate numerous upstream bug fixes. Details of these changes are found in the following MySQL Release Notes:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/news-5-0-77.html

All MySQL users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues. After installing this update, the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) will be restarted automatically.

The version of MySQL installed on the remote host is earlier than 5.0.88 / 5.1.42 / 5.5.0 / 6.0.14 and thus reportedly allows a local user to circumvent privileges through creation of MyISAM tables using the 'DATA DIRECTORY' and 'INDEX DIRECTORY' options to overwrite existing table files in the application's data directory.  This is the same flaw as CVE-2008-2079, which was not completely fixed.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201201-02 (MySQL: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in MySQL. Please review       the CVE identifiers referenced below for details.
  Impact :

    An unauthenticated remote attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code       with the privileges of the MySQL process, cause a Denial of Service       condition, bypass security restrictions, uninstall arbitrary MySQL       plugins, or conduct Man-in-the-Middle and Cross-Site Scripting attacks.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

Updated mysql packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

MySQL is a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. It consists of the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) and many client programs and libraries.

Multiple flaws were discovered in the way MySQL handled symbolic links to tables created using the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY directives in CREATE TABLE statements. An attacker with CREATE and DROP table privileges and shell access to the database server could use these flaws to escalate their database privileges, or gain access to tables created by other database users. (CVE-2008-4098, CVE-2009-4030)

Note: Due to the security risks and previous security issues related to the use of the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY directives, users not depending on this feature should consider disabling it by adding 'symbolic-links=0' to the '[mysqld]' section of the 'my.cnf' configuration file. In this update, an example of such a configuration was added to the default 'my.cnf' file.

An insufficient HTML entities quoting flaw was found in the mysql command line client's HTML output mode. If an attacker was able to inject arbitrary HTML tags into data stored in a MySQL database, which was later retrieved using the mysql command line client and its HTML output mode, they could perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against victims viewing the HTML output in a web browser.
(CVE-2008-4456)

Multiple format string flaws were found in the way the MySQL server logged user commands when creating and deleting databases. A remote, authenticated attacker with permissions to CREATE and DROP databases could use these flaws to formulate a specially crafted SQL command that would cause a temporary denial of service (open connections to mysqld are terminated). (CVE-2009-2446)

Note: To exploit the CVE-2009-2446 flaws, the general query log (the mysqld '--log' command line option or the 'log' option in 'my.cnf') must be enabled. This logging is not enabled by default.

All MySQL users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues. After installing this update, the MySQL server daemon (mysqld) will be restarted automatically.

Due a flaw users could access tables of other users. (CVE-2008-4097, CVE-2008-4098)

Empty bit-strings in a query could crash the MySQL server (CVE-2008-3963).

Due to another flaw users could access tables of other users (CVE-2008-4097, CVE-2008-4098).

This update also fixes problems with the 'ORDER BY' query

It was discovered that MySQL could be made to overwrite existing table files in the data directory. An authenticated user could use the DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY options to possibly bypass privilege checks. This update alters table creation behaviour by disallowing the use of the MySQL data directory in DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY options. (CVE-2008-2079, CVE-2008-4097 and CVE-2008-4098)

It was discovered that MySQL did not handle empty bit-string literals properly. An attacker could exploit this problem and cause the MySQL server to crash, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3963).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Multiple vulnerabilities has been found and corrected in mysql :

MySQL 5.0 before 5.0.66, 5.1 before 5.1.26, and 6.0 before 6.0.6 does not properly handle a b'' (b single-quote single-quote) token, aka an empty bit-string literal, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) by using this token in a SQL statement (CVE-2008-3963).

MySQL 5.0.51a allows local users to bypass certain privilege checks by calling CREATE TABLE on a MyISAM table with modified (1) DATA DIRECTORY or (2) INDEX DIRECTORY arguments that are associated with symlinks within pathnames for subdirectories of the MySQL home data directory, which are followed when tables are created in the future.
NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2008-2079 (CVE-2008-4097).

MySQL before 5.0.67 allows local users to bypass certain privilege checks by calling CREATE TABLE on a MyISAM table with modified (1) DATA DIRECTORY or (2) INDEX DIRECTORY arguments that are originally associated with pathnames without symlinks, and that can point to tables created at a future time at which a pathname is modified to contain a symlink to a subdirectory of the MySQL home data directory.
NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2008-4097 (CVE-2008-4098).

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the command-line client in MySQL 5.0.26 through 5.0.45, when the --html option is enabled, allows attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML by placing it in a database cell, which might be accessed by this client when composing an HTML document (CVE-2008-4456).

bugs in the Mandriva Linux 2008.1 packages that has been fixed :

o upstream fix for mysql bug35754 (#38398, #44691) o fix #46116 (initialization file mysqld-max don't show correct application status) o fix upstream bug 42366

bugs in the Mandriva Linux 2009.0 packages that has been fixed :

o upgraded 5.0.67 to 5.0.77 (fixes CVE-2008-3963, CVE-2008-4097, CVE-2008-4098) o no need to workaround #38398, #44691 anymore (since 5.0.75) o fix upstream bug 42366 o fix #46116 (initialization file mysqld-max don't show correct application status) o sphinx-0.9.8.1

bugs in the Mandriva Linux Corporate Server 4 packages that has been fixed: o fix upstream bug 42366 o fix #46116 (initialization file mysqld-max don't show correct application status)

The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.

MySQL Team reports :

Additional corrections were made for the symlink-related privilege problem originally addressed. The original fix did not correctly handle the data directory pathname if it contained symlinked directories in its path, and the check was made only at table-creation time, not at table-opening time later.

Empty bit-strings in a query could crash the MySQL server (CVE-2008-3963).

Due to another flaw users could access tables of other users (CVE-2008-4097, CVE-2008-4098).

This update also fixes the previously broken mysqlhotcopy script.

Empty bit-strings in a query could crash the MySQL server (CVE-2008-3963).

Due to another flaw users could access tables of other users (CVE-2008-4097, CVE-2008-4098).

Empty bit-strings in a query could crash the MySQL server.
(CVE-2008-3963)

Due to another flaw users could access tables of other users.
(CVE-2008-4097 / CVE-2008-4098)

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
67998	Oracle Linux 4 : mysql (ELSA-2010-0110)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
63890	RHEL 5 : mysql (RHSA-2009:1289)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
17812	MySQL < 5.0.88 / 5.1.42 / 5.5.0 / 6.0.14 MyISAM CREATE TABLE Privilege Check Bypass	Nessus	Databases	medium
57446	GLSA-201201-02 : MySQL: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	high
44647	CentOS 4 : mysql (CESA-2010:0110)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
44635	RHEL 4 : mysql (RHSA-2010:0110)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
43782	CentOS 5 : mysql (CESA-2009:1289)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
41243	SuSE9 Security Update : MySQL (YOU Patch Number 12256)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
40026	openSUSE Security Update : libmysqlclient-devel (libmysqlclient-devel-210)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
37299	Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : mysql-dfsg-5.0 vulnerabilities (USN-671-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	medium
36943	Mandriva Linux Security Advisory : mysql (MDVSA-2009:094)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	medium
35279	FreeBSD : mysql -- MyISAM table privileges security bypass vulnerability for symlinked paths (738f8f9e-d661-11dd-a765-0030843d3802)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	medium
35248	openSUSE 10 Security Update : libmysqlclient-devel (libmysqlclient-devel-5619)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
34985	openSUSE 10 Security Update : mysql (mysql-5613)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
34765	SuSE 10 Security Update : MySQL (ZYPP Patch Number 5618)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2008-4097

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

medium

high

high

high

high

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium