Security Bulletin: IBM Flex System Manager (FSM) is affected by multiple perl vulnerabilities (CVE-2016-1238, CVE-2016-2381, CVE-2015-8853)

Summary

Multiple vulnerabilities have been identified in perl that is embedded in the IBM FSM. This fix addresses these vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID: CVE-2016-1238**
DESCRIPTION:** Perl could allow a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the system, caused by an error when loading optional modules. By loading code from the current working directory, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause the target Perl application to load and execute arbitrary code on the target system with elevated privileges.
CVSS Base Score: 8.4
CVSS Temporal Score: See https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/115425 for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

CVEID: CVE-2016-2381**
DESCRIPTION:** Perl could allow a remote attacker to bypass security restrictions, caused by improper handling of $ENV{“X”} variable. By using duplicate environment variables in envp, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to bypass the taint protection mechanism.
CVSS Base Score: 5.3
CVSS Temporal Score: See https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/112139 for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N)

CVEID: CVE-2015-8853**
DESCRIPTION:** Perl is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by the improper handling of illegal inputs. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability using regular expression on malformed UTF8 input to cause the application to enter into an infinite loop and consume all available CPU resources.
CVSS Base Score: 7.5
CVSS Temporal Score: See https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/112536 for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score*: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

Affected Products and Versions

Flex System Manager 1.3.4.x
Flex System Manager 1.3.3.x
Flex System Manager 1.3.2.x

Remediation/Fixes

IBM recommends updating the FSM using the instructions referenced in this table.

Product |

VRMF |

APAR |

Remediation
—|—|—|—
Flex System Manager|

1.3.4.x |

IT17537

| Install fsmfix1.3.4.0_IT17534_IT17536_IT17537_IT17653
Flex System Manager|

1.3.3.x |

IT17537

| Install fsmfix1.3.3.0_IT17534_IT17536_IT17537_IT17653
Flex System Manager|

1.3.2.x |

IT17537

| Install fsmfix1.3.2.0_IT17534_IT17536_IT17537_IT17653

For a complete list of FSM security bulletins refer to this technote: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas7797054ebc3d9857486258027006ce4a0&myns=purflex&mync=E&cm_sp=purflex--NULL--E

For 1.1.x.x, 1.2.x.x, 1.3.0.x and 1.3.1.x IBM recommends upgrading to a fixed, supported version/release of the product.

Workarounds and Mitigations

None