USN-96-1: mySQL vulnerabilities

Releases

• Ubuntu 4.10

Details

Stefano Di Paola discovered three privilege escalation flaws in the MySQL
server:

• If an authenticated user had INSERT privileges on the 'mysql' administrative
  database, the CREATE FUNCTION command allowed that user to use libc functions
  to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the database server (user
  'mysql'). (CAN-2005-0709)

• If an authenticated user had INSERT privileges on the 'mysql' administrative
  database, it was possible to load a library located in an arbitrary directory
  by using INSERT INTO mysql.func instead of CREATE FUNCTION. This allowed the
  user to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the database server (user
  'mysql'). (CAN-2005-0710)

• Temporary files belonging to tables created with CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE were
  handled in an insecure way. This allowed any local computer user to overwrite
  arbitrary files with the privileges of the database server. (CAN-2005-0711)

Matt Brubeck discovered that the directory /usr/share/mysql/ was owned and
writable by the database server user 'mysql'. This directory contains scripts
which are usually run by root. This allowed a local attacker who already has
mysql privileges to gain full root access by modifying a script and tricking
root into executing it.

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 4.10

• mysql-server -

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References

• CVE-2005-0711
• CVE-2005-0709
• CVE-2005-0710