NGSSoftware Insight Security Research Advisory

Name: IBM DB2 Windows Permission Problems
Systems Affected: DB2 8.1
Severity: High risk from local
Vendor URL: http://www.ibm.com/
Author: Chris Anley [ chris at ngssoftware.com ]
Relates to: http://www.ngssoftware.com/advisories/db2-02.txt
Date of Public Advisory: 5th January 2005
Advisory number: #NISR05012005F
Advisory URL: http://www.ngssoftware.com/advisories/db205012005F.txt

Description
***********

Almost all shared memory sections and events in the Windows version of
DB2 have weak permissions; all sections can be read and written by
Everyone, and all events can be set and waited on by Everyone. This
results in a number of security issues relating to the privileges of
local users.

Details
*******

The numbers below are NGS BUGID reference numbers mentioned in
http://www.ngssoftware.com/advisories/db2-02.txt

107) Depending on the server's authentication mode, any user can read
plaintext windows usernames and passwords from the
'DB2SHMSECURITYSERVICE' section. If the authentication mode is 'client',
the username and password combinations for all client connections can be
read from this section.

The data in this section persists until another connection is made.

108) Any user can shut down DB2, by setting the event named
'DB2SHUTDOWNSEM'+ pid, for example

DB2SHUTDOWNSEM000002ec

109) Any user can DOS the "DB2 Security Server", by writing non-zero
values to the section 'DB2SHMSECURITYSERVICE', followed by setting the
security service 'input' event, to make the service read the input data:

DB2NTSECURITYINPUT

The service will then crash.

110) Any user can read potentially sensitive query and/or query result
data from a number of shared memory sections. The following sections are
marked readable by 'Everybody'

section read DB20QM
section read DB2GLBQ0QM
section read DB2SHMDB2_0APP
section read DB2SHMDB2_0APL00000003
section read DB2SHMDB2_0APL00000004
section read DB2SHMDB2_0APL00000005
...etc

111) After writing to the world-writeable section 'DB20QM':

section write DB20QM

... the DB2 'command line processor' will not run, nor will the 'command
center', the server has effectively been DOSsed.

Fix Information
***************
IBM has written a patch and can be obtained with the latest fixpak.

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/udb/support/downloadv8.html -
DB2 v8.1
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/udb/support/downloadv7.html -
DB2 v7.x

NGSSQuirreL for DB2 (http://www.ngssoftware.com/db2.htm) can be used to
assess whether your DB2 server is vulnerable to this.


About NGSSoftware
*****************
NGSSoftware design, research and develop intelligent, advanced
application security assessment scanners. Based in the United Kingdom,
NGSSoftware have offices in the South of London and the East Coast of
Scotland. NGSSoftware's sister company NGSConsulting, offers best of
breed security consulting services, specialising in application, host
and network security assessments.

http://www.ngssoftware.com/

Telephone +44 208 401 0070
Fax +44 208 401 0076

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