Fwd: Oracle October 2005 CPU Problems

More on the October 2005 CPU

• Forwarded message ---------- From: NGSSoftware Insight Security Research <nisr_at_nextgenss.com> Date: Nov 8, 2005 4:54 PM Subject: Oracle October 2005 CPU Problems To: bugtraq_at_securityfocus.com, ntbugtraq_at_listserv.ntbugtraq.com

Examining the Oracle October 2005 Critical Patch Update in depth, NGSResearchers discovered a number of problems which have all since been reported to Oracle. As well as new vulnerabilities and problems with the patches for old vulnerabilities, the October 2005 CPU fails to install the patched Oracle Text (CTXSYS) components on Oracle 8.1.7.4 <http://8.1.7.4>on all operating
systems. This is due to a problem with the install sql script: rather than executing

SELECT DBMS_REGISTRY.SCRIPT('CONTEXT','@ctxcpu.sql')....

the install script executes

SELECT DBMS_REGISTRY.SCRIPT('CTX','@ctxcpu.sql')....

So, even if you have Oracle Text installed the patch installer will not install the updated PL/SQL packages. The fall out from this means that your servers may still be vulnerable to the Oracle Text flaws; these allow a low privileged user to gain DBA privileges. Further, if the RDBMS is part of a web application that uses Oracle Portal (OAS, IAS, Oracle HTTP Server) then an attacker may exploit this from the Internet without a userID and password.

To check if you are still vulnerable execute the following query

select owner,package_name,object_name from all_arguments where owner = 'CTXSYS' and package_name = 'DRILOAD' and object_name = 'VALIDATE_STMT';

If no row is returned then you are not vulnerable but if a row is returned then you are vulnerable. In this case you should manually apply the ctxcpu.sql script.

NGSSQuirreL for Oracle, the leading vulnerability assessment scanner for Oracle RDBMSes, checks for these problems as well as the other many issues that still afflict Oracle. More information about NGSSQuirreL can be found here - http://www.ngssoftware.com/squirrelora.htm

Cheers,
The NGSResearch Team

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Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist

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http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Thu Nov 10 2005 - 19:58:01 CST