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module

SystemTap MODPROBE_OPTIONS Privilege Escalation

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Disclosed
Nov 17, 2010
Created
Apr 22, 2019

Description

This module attempts to gain root privileges by exploiting a
vulnerability in the `staprun` executable included with SystemTap
version 1.3.

The `staprun` executable does not clear environment variables prior to
executing `modprobe`, allowing an arbitrary configuration file to be
specified in the `MODPROBE_OPTIONS` environment variable, resulting
in arbitrary command execution with root privileges.

This module has been tested successfully on:

systemtap 1.2-1.fc13-i686 on Fedora 13 (i686); and
systemtap 1.1-3.el5 on RHEL 5.5 (x64).

Authors

Tavis Ormandy
bcoles [email protected]

Platform

Linux

Architectures

x86, x64, armle, aarch64, riscv64le, riscv32le, ppc, mipsle, mipsbe

References

Module Options

To display the available options, load the module within the Metasploit console and run the commands 'show options' or 'show advanced':


    msf > use exploit/linux/local/systemtap_modprobe_options_priv_esc
    msf exploit(systemtap_modprobe_options_priv_esc) > show targets
        ...targets...
    msf exploit(systemtap_modprobe_options_priv_esc) > set TARGET < target-id >
    msf exploit(systemtap_modprobe_options_priv_esc) > show options
        ...show and set options...
    msf exploit(systemtap_modprobe_options_priv_esc) > exploit
Title
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