The insert_module function in runtime/staprun/staprun_funcs.c in the systemtap runtime tool (staprun) in SystemTap before 1.6 does not properly validate a module when loading it, which allows local users to gain privileges via a race condition between the signature validation and the module initialization.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2011:1089 :

Updated systemtap packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel. The system allows developers to write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system.

A race condition flaw was found in the way the staprun utility performed module loading. A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to modify a signed module while it is being loaded, allowing them to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2011-2503)

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct this issue.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2011:1088 :

Updated systemtap packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel. The system allows developers to write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system.

It was found that SystemTap did not perform proper module path sanity checking if a user specified a custom path to the uprobes module, used when performing user-space probing ('staprun -u'). A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to bypass intended module-loading restrictions, allowing them to escalate their privileges by loading an arbitrary, unsigned module. (CVE-2011-2502)

A race condition flaw was found in the way the staprun utility performed module loading. A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to modify a signed module while it is being loaded, allowing them to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2011-2503)

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel. The system allows developers to write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system.

It was found that SystemTap did not perform proper module path sanity checking if a user specified a custom path to the uprobes module, used when performing user-space probing ('staprun -u'). A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to bypass intended module-loading restrictions, allowing them to escalate their privileges by loading an arbitrary, unsigned module. (CVE-2011-2502)

A race condition flaw was found in the way the staprun utility performed module loading. A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to modify a signed module while it is being loaded, allowing them to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2011-2503)

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel. The system allows developers to write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system.

A race condition flaw was found in the way the staprun utility performed module loading. A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to modify a signed module while it is being loaded, allowing them to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2011-2503)

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct this issue

Several vulnerabilities were discovered in SystemTap, an instrumentation system for Linux :

  - CVE-2011-2503     It was discovered that a race condition in staprun could     lead to privilege escalation. 

  - CVE-2010-4170     It was discovered that insufficient validation of     environment variables in staprun could lead to privilege     escalation.

  - CVE-2010-4171     It was discovered that insufficient validation of module     unloading could lead to denial of service.

Updated systemtap packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel. The system allows developers to write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system.

A race condition flaw was found in the way the staprun utility performed module loading. A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to modify a signed module while it is being loaded, allowing them to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2011-2503)

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct this issue.

This update fixes CVE-2011-2502 and CVE-2011-2503, which affected unprivileged mode (stapusr) installations.

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

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the RHSA-2011:1089 advisory.

  - systemtap: signed module loading race condition (CVE-2011-2503)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Updated systemtap packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux kernel. The system allows developers to write scripts to collect data on the operation of the system.

It was found that SystemTap did not perform proper module path sanity checking if a user specified a custom path to the uprobes module, used when performing user-space probing ('staprun -u'). A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to bypass intended module-loading restrictions, allowing them to escalate their privileges by loading an arbitrary, unsigned module. (CVE-2011-2502)

A race condition flaw was found in the way the staprun utility performed module loading. A local user who is a member of the stapusr group could use this flaw to modify a signed module while it is being loaded, allowing them to escalate their privileges. (CVE-2011-2503)

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
68313	Oracle Linux 5 : systemtap (ELSA-2011-1089)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	low
68312	Oracle Linux 6 : systemtap (ELSA-2011-1088)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
61097	Scientific Linux Security Update : systemtap on SL6.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	medium
61096	Scientific Linux Security Update : systemtap on SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	low
56881	Debian DSA-2348-1 : systemtap - several vulnerabilities	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
56267	CentOS 5 : systemtap (CESA-2011:1089)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	low
55744	Fedora 14 : systemtap-1.5-8.fc14 (2011-9739)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
55743	Fedora 15 : systemtap-1.5-8.fc15 (2011-9722)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
55685	RHEL 5 : systemtap (RHSA-2011:1089)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	critical
55684	RHEL 6 : systemtap (RHSA-2011:1088)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2011-2503

critical

Tenable Plugins

low

medium

medium

low

high

low

medium

medium

critical

medium