News
Oracle Releases Critical Updates
- By Joab Jackson
- 07/16/2008
Oracle has released the latest quarterly round of
critical patches for all its products.
Among the applications being updated are the Oracle database 9i through 11g,
Oracle Application Server, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM and the Oracle WebLogic
Server (formerly BEA WebLogic Server).
Among the vulnerabilities being fixed are:
- A library path vulnerability in the Oracle database:
This flaw allows Oracle users to execute code with root
privileges by overriding the root program that sets user rights,
according to security research firm iDefense. The vulnerability,
which resides on Unix and Linux platforms, has been assigned the
number in the CVE-2008-2613
in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures vulnerability
database.
- A buffer overflow vulnerability in the Oracle database:
This flaw allows users to execute code with database
user privileges, according to iDefense. A queuing routine does not
validate input, allowing an attacker to enter a long string of code
that will overflow the buffer and place potentially damaging
commands into memory. CVE-2008-2607.
- An input validation vulnerability in the Oracle Internet
Directory:
This flaw can enable a denial-of-service attack and
bring down the directory by sending a flood of bogus Lightweight
Directory Access Control packets to the program, according to
iDefense. CVE-2008-2595.
Oracle releases critical patches in bundles on a quarterly basis.
"They are released on the Tuesday closest to the 15th day of
January, April, July and October," according to a
page
explaining the release schedule.
Typically, Oracle announces security fixes only when fixes are
available for all the different platforms and versions. For most of
Oracle's chief products, such as the Oracle Database Server and the
Oracle Application Server, the patches are
cumulative, meaning they contain all the fixes from
previous critical patch updates. Patches for other products are
provided on a one-off basis, meaning older patches will need to be
applied independently.
This quarterly patch cycle is the first to assign CVE
Identifiers (CVE-IDs) to vulnerabilities, according to
Mitre, which oversees CVE management.
About the Author
Joab Jackson is the chief technology editor of Government Computing News (GCN.com).