Sun JDK/JRE: Applet privilege escalation

Background

Sun’s JDK and JRE provide interpreters for Java Applets in a sandboxed environment. These implementations provide the Java Web Start technology that can be used for easy client-side deployment of Java applications.

Description

Applets executed using JRE or JDK can use “reflection” APIs functions to elevate its privileges beyond the sandbox restrictions. Adam Gowdiak discovered five vulnerabilities that use this method for privilege escalation. Two more vulnerabilities were discovered by the vendor. Peter Csepely discovered that Web Start Java applications also can an escalate their privileges.

Impact

A malicious Java applet can bypass Java sandbox restrictions and hence access local files, connect to arbitrary network locations and execute arbitrary code on the user’s machine. Java Web Start applications are affected likewise.

Workaround

Select another Java implementation using java-config.

Resolution

All Sun JDK users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-java/sun-jdk-1.4.2.10"

All Sun JRE users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-java/sun-jre-bin-1.4.2.10"