Bug 882606 (CVE-2012-5613) - CVE-2012-5613 mysql: database privilege escalation using FILE privilege
Summary: CVE-2012-5613 mysql: database privilege escalation using FILE privilege
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: CVE-2012-5613
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Red Hat Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 882596
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2012-12-02 07:01 UTC by Huzaifa S. Sidhpurwala
Modified: 2021-02-17 08:18 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-01-21 09:17:33 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Huzaifa S. Sidhpurwala 2012-12-02 07:01:05 UTC
A Database User Privilege Elevation was found in MySQL. An attacker with 'FILE'  privilege could use this flaw elevate its permissions to that of the MySQL admin user.

Reference:
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Dec/6

This issue was assigned CVE-2012-5613.

Comment 1 Jan Lieskovsky 2012-12-03 11:28:44 UTC
Some other references:
  http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/12/02/3
  http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/12/02/4

--

The issue is disputed:
* CVE-2012-5613:

** DISPUTED **

MySQL 5.5.19 and possibly other versions, and MariaDB 5.5.28a and
possibly other versions, when configured to assign the FILE privilege
to users who should not have administrative privileges, allows remote
authenticated users to gain privileges by leveraging the FILE
privilege to create files as the MySQL administrator. NOTE: the vendor
disputes this issue, stating that this is only a vulnerability when
the administrator does not follow recommendations in the product's
installation documentation. NOTE: it could be argued that this should
not be included in CVE because it is a configuration issue.

--

Comment 2 Huzaifa S. Sidhpurwala 2013-01-21 09:17:33 UTC
This is not a security issue. As per MySQL manual:

   * The `FILE' privilege can be abused to read into a database table
     any files that the MySQL server can read on the server host. This
     includes all world-readable files and files in the server's data
     directory.  The table can then be accessed using *Note `SELECT':
     select. to transfer its contents to the client host.

Red Hat recommends not to grant `FILE' privilege to nonadministrative/untrusted
users. Any user that has this privilege can write a file anywhere in the file
system with the privileges of the mysqld. daemon.

Additionally, MySQL provides a --secure-file-priv option that allows to restrict 
all FILE operations to a specific directory.

Closing this bug as a non-issue.

References:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/privileges-provided.html#priv_file
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_secure_file_priv
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/12/02/4

Comment 3 Doran Moppert 2020-02-11 00:27:48 UTC
Statement:

Red Hat Product Security determined that this flaw was not a security vulnerability. See the Bugzilla link for more details.


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