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TIBCO Security Advisory: April 28, 2009 - TIBCO Enterprise Message Service™

TIBCO Enterprise Message Service™ vulnerability

Original release date: April 28, 2009
Last revised: --
CVE-2009-1291
Source: TIBCO Software Inc.

TIBCO would like to extend its appreciation to iDefense contributor Stephen Fewer of Harmony Security for discovery of this vulnerability, which has been addressed in the 5.1.2 release.

Description

The TIBCO EMS server contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in processing of inbound data via SmartSockets. The impact of this vulnerability may include remote execution of arbitrary code, information disclosure, and denial of service.

TIBCO has released an update which addresses a critical vulnerability in the server component of TIBCO EMS when used in conjunction with TIBCO SmartSockets.

This vulnerability affects the EMS server if an attacker controls the SmartSockets Server, or is able to inject data into the TCP stream between the SmartSockets and EMS servers.

TIBCO strongly recommends sites running the affected component to install the update or take mitigating action as appropriate.

Systems Affected

  • TIBCO Enterprise Message Service (EMS) versions 4.0.0 through 5.1.1

The following components are affected:

  • TIBCO EMS Server (tibemsd)

Impact

The impact of this vulnerability varies depending on the operating system, configuration options of the server, and the privilege levels of the user that invokes the server.

On Unix based systems, the successful exploit will allow arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user that invoked the server.

On Windows based systems, the successful exploit will allow arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user that invoked the server. If the server component is installed as a system service, this will result in access to system privileges.

Solution

SmartSockets support in the EMS server is disabled by default. If SmartSockets support has been enabled, upgrade TIBCO EMS to version 5.1.2 or above.  This is strongly recommended.

If an upgrade is not possible, the following actions can mitigate the vulnerability:

  • Disable SmartSockets support by setting "tibss_transports" to "disabled" in the configuration file for the EMS server (tibemsd.conf). 
  • Ensure that all SmartSockets servers specified in the "server_names" field of the transports configuration file (transports.conf) are fully trusted, and that injection of data into the rtserver/tibemsd connection is prevented.

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