IBM Spectrum Scale CVE-2019-4558 Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Description

IBM Spectrum Scale is prone to a local privilege-escalation vulnerability. An attacker may exploit this issue to gain root privileges. The following IBM products are affected: IBM Spectrum Scale versions 5.0.0.0 through 5.0.3.2 and 4.2.0.0 through 4.2.3.17 are vulnerable. IBM Elastic Storage Server versions 5.3.0 through 5.3.4.1, 5.0.0 through 5.2.7.0, 4.5.0 through 4.6.0.0 and 4.0.0 through 4.0.6.0 are vulnerable.

Technologies Affected

• IBM Elastic Storage Server 4.0
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 4.0.1
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 4.0.2
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 4.5
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 4.6.0.0
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 5.0
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 5.0.1
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 5.2.7.0
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 5.3.0
• IBM Elastic Storage Server 5.3.4.1
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.0.0
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.0.1
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.0.2
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.0.3
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.0.4
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.1.0
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.1.1
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.1.2
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.2.0
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.2.1
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.2.3
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.10
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.11
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.12
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.13
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.4
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.8
• IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.9
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.0
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.0.2
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.1
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.1.2
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.2.0
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.2.1
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.2.3
• IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.3.0

Recommendations

Permit local access for trusted individuals only. Where possible, use restricted environments and restricted shells.
Ensure that only trusted users have local, interactive access to affected computers.

Run all software as a nonprivileged user with minimal access rights.
When possible, run all software as a user with minimal privileges and limited access to system resources. Use additional precautions such as restrictive environments to insulate software that may potentially handle malicious content.

Updates are available. Please see the references or vendor advisory for more information.