VULHUB ™

Aserver is a server program that ships with HP-UX versions 10.x and above that is used to interface client applications with the audio hardware. Because it talks to hardware, it is installed setuid root by default. During normal execution, Aserver executes "ps" via the system() libcall, relying on the PATH environment variable to do so. As a result, a user can modify their PATH environment variable so that it includes an arbitrary program called 'ps' before executing Aserver. When Aserver is run with the -f argument, the offending system() function will be called and the attacker's version of ps will be executed as root. This is a trivial root compromise.

Aserver is a server program that ships with HP-UX versions 10.x and above that is used to interface client applications with the audio hardware. Because it talks to hardware, it is installed setuid root by default. During normal execution, Aserver executes "ps" via the system() libcall, relying on the PATH environment variable to do so. As a result, a user can modify their PATH environment variable so that it includes an arbitrary program called 'ps' before executing Aserver. When Aserver is run with the -f argument, the offending system() function will be called and the attacker's version of ps will be executed as root. This is a trivial root compromise.