Security Bulletin: Vulnerability in Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) affects IBM SAN Volume Controller and Storwize Family (CVE-2015-3238)

Summary

There is a vulnerability in Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) that is used by IBM SAN Volume Controller and Storwize Family. These issues were disclosed by Red Hat in August 2015.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID: CVE-2015-3238**
DESCRIPTION:** Linux-PAM could allow a local attacker to obtain sensitive information, caused by an error in the _unix_run_helper_binary function in the pam_unix module. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability using an overly large password to enumerate usernames and cause the system to hang.
CVSS Base Score: 5.1
CVSS Temporal Score: See https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/106368 for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L)

Affected Products and Versions

IBM SAN Volume Controller
IBM Storwize V7000
IBM Storwize V5000
IBM Storwize V3700
IBM Storwize V3500

All products are affected when running supported releases 1.1 to 7.5 except for versions 7.4.0.8 and 7.5.0.5 and above. Version 7.6 is not affected.

Remediation/Fixes

IBM recommends that you fix this vulnerability by upgrading affected versions of IBM SAN Volume Controller, IBM Storwize V7000, V5000, V3700 and V3500 to the following code levels or higher:

7.4.0.8
7.5.0.6
7.6.0.3

Latest SAN Volume Controller Code
Latest Storwize V7000 Code
Latest Storwize V5000 Code
Latest Storwize V3700 Code
Latest Storwize V3500 Code

Workarounds and Mitigations

Although IBM recommends that you install a level of code with a fix for this vulnerability, you can mitigate, although not eliminate, your risk until you have done so by ensuring that all users who have access to the system are authenticated by another security system such as a firewall.