PostgreSQL 8.1 and probably later versions, when local trust authentication is enabled and the Database Link library (dblink) is installed, allows remote attackers to access arbitrary accounts and execute arbitrary SQL queries via a dblink host parameter that proxies the connection from 127.0.0.1.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2008:0039 :

Updated postgresql packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

PostgreSQL is an advanced Object-Relational database management system (DBMS). The postgresql packages include the client programs and libraries needed to access a PostgreSQL DBMS server.

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL. An authenticated attacker could create an index function that would be executed with administrator privileges during database maintenance tasks, such as database vacuuming. (CVE-2007-6600)

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL's Database Link library (dblink). An authenticated attacker could use dblink to possibly escalate privileges on systems with 'trust' or 'ident' authentication configured. Please note that dblink functionality is not enabled by default, and can only by enabled by a database administrator on systems with the postgresql-contrib package installed. (CVE-2007-3278, CVE-2007-6601)

All postgresql users should upgrade to these updated packages, which include PostgreSQL 7.3.21 and resolve these issues.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2008-0038 advisory.

    [7.4.19-1.el4_6.1]
     - Update to PostgreSQL 7.4.19 to fix CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772,        CVE-2007-6067, CVE-2007-6600, CVE-2007-6601      Resolves: #427135

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Will Drewry discovered multiple flaws in PostgreSQL's regular expression engine. An authenticated attacker could use these flaws to cause a denial of service by causing the PostgreSQL server to crash, enter an infinite loop, or use extensive CPU and memory resources while processing queries containing specially crafted regular expressions. Applications that accept regular expressions from untrusted sources may expose this problem to unauthorized attackers.
(CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL. An authenticated attacker could create an index function that would be executed with administrator privileges during database maintenance tasks, such as database vacuuming. (CVE-2007-6600)

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL's Database Link library (dblink). An authenticated attacker could use dblink to possibly escalate privileges on systems with 'trust' or 'ident' authentication configured. Please note that dblink functionality is not enabled by default, and can only by enabled by a database administrator on systems with the postgresql-contrib package installed. (CVE-2007-3278, CVE-2007-6601)

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200801-15 (PostgreSQL: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    If using the 'expression indexes' feature, PostgreSQL executes index     functions as the superuser during VACUUM and ANALYZE instead of the     table owner, and allows SET ROLE and SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION in the     index functions (CVE-2007-6600). Additionally, several errors involving     regular expressions were found (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772,     CVE-2007-6067). Eventually, a privilege escalation vulnerability via     unspecified vectors in the DBLink module was reported (CVE-2007-6601).
    This vulnerability is exploitable when local trust or ident     authentication is used, and is due to an incomplete fix of     CVE-2007-3278.
  Impact :

    A remote authenticated attacker could send specially crafted queries     containing complex regular expressions to the server that could result     in a Denial of Service by a server crash (CVE-2007-4769), an infinite     loop (CVE-2007-4772) or a memory exhaustion (CVE-2007-6067). The two     other vulnerabilities can be exploited to gain additional privileges.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround for all these issues at this time.

Nico Leidecker discovered that PostgreSQL did not properly restrict dblink functions. An authenticated user could exploit this flaw to access arbitrary accounts and execute arbitrary SQL queries.
(CVE-2007-3278, CVE-2007-6601)

It was discovered that the TCL regular expression parser used by PostgreSQL did not properly check its input. An attacker could send crafted regular expressions to PostgreSQL and cause a denial of service via resource exhaustion or database crash. (CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)

It was discovered that PostgreSQL executed VACUUM and ANALYZE operations within index functions with superuser privileges and also allowed SET ROLE and SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION within index functions.
A remote authenticated user could exploit these flaws to gain privileges. (CVE-2007-6600).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Several local vulnerabilities have been discovered in PostgreSQL, an object-relational SQL database. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems :

  - CVE-2007-3278     It was discovered that the DBLink module performed     insufficient credential validation. This issue is also     tracked as CVE-2007-6601, since the initial upstream fix     was incomplete.

  - CVE-2007-4769     Tavis Ormandy and Will Drewry discovered that a bug in     the handling of back-references inside the regular     expressions engine could lead to an out of bounds read,     resulting in a crash. This constitutes only a security     problem if an application using PostgreSQL processes     regular expressions from untrusted sources.

  - CVE-2007-4772     Tavis Ormandy and Will Drewry discovered that the     optimizer for regular expression could be tricked into     an infinite loop, resulting in denial of service. This     constitutes only a security problem if an application     using PostgreSQL processes regular expressions from     untrusted sources.

  - CVE-2007-6067     Tavis Ormandy and Will Drewry discovered that the     optimizer for regular expression could be tricked     massive resource consumption. This constitutes only a     security problem if an application using PostgreSQL     processes regular expressions from untrusted sources.

  - CVE-2007-6600     Functions in index expressions could lead to privilege     escalation. For a more in depth explanation please see     the upstream announce available at     http://www.postgresql.org/about/news.905.

Updated postgresql packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

PostgreSQL is an advanced Object-Relational database management system (DBMS). The postgresql packages include the client programs and libraries needed to access a PostgreSQL DBMS server.

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL. An authenticated attacker could create an index function that would be executed with administrator privileges during database maintenance tasks, such as database vacuuming. (CVE-2007-6600)

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL's Database Link library (dblink). An authenticated attacker could use dblink to possibly escalate privileges on systems with 'trust' or 'ident' authentication configured. Please note that dblink functionality is not enabled by default, and can only by enabled by a database administrator on systems with the postgresql-contrib package installed. (CVE-2007-3278, CVE-2007-6601)

All postgresql users should upgrade to these updated packages, which include PostgreSQL 7.3.21 and resolve these issues.

Updated postgresql packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

PostgreSQL is an advanced Object-Relational database management system (DBMS). The postgresql packages include the client programs and libraries needed to access a PostgreSQL DBMS server.

Will Drewry discovered multiple flaws in PostgreSQL's regular expression engine. An authenticated attacker could use these flaws to cause a denial of service by causing the PostgreSQL server to crash, enter an infinite loop, or use extensive CPU and memory resources while processing queries containing specially crafted regular expressions. Applications that accept regular expressions from untrusted sources may expose this problem to unauthorized attackers.
(CVE-2007-4769, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-6067)

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL. An authenticated attacker could create an index function that would be executed with administrator privileges during database maintenance tasks, such as database vacuuming. (CVE-2007-6600)

A privilege escalation flaw was discovered in PostgreSQL's Database Link library (dblink). An authenticated attacker could use dblink to possibly escalate privileges on systems with 'trust' or 'ident' authentication configured. Please note that dblink functionality is not enabled by default, and can only by enabled by a database administrator on systems with the postgresql-contrib package installed. (CVE-2007-3278, CVE-2007-6601)

All postgresql users should upgrade to these updated packages, which include PostgreSQL 7.4.19 and 8.1.11, and resolve these issues.

The remote host is running PostgreSQL, an open source relational database.  This version is vulnerable to six distinct remote flaws.  The nature of three of these flaws involves privilege escalation.  An attacker exploiting the 'privilege escalation' bugs would either need local access or user credentials in order to elevate their access.  The other three flaws involve remote denial of service attacks.  An attacker exploiting these flaws would not need any sort of credentials and would have the ability to crash the database service.  

PostgreSQL 8.1 and probably later and earlier versions, when local trust authentication is enabled and the Database Link library (dblink) is installed, allows remote attackers to access arbitrary accounts and execute arbitrary SQL queries via a dblink host parameter that proxies the connection from 127.0.0.1. (CVE-2007-3278)

PostgreSQL 8.1 and probably later and earlier versions, when the PL/pgSQL (plpgsql) language has been created, grants certain plpgsql privileges to the PUBLIC domain, which allows remote attackers to create and execute functions, as demonstrated by functions that perform local brute-force password guessing attacks, which may evade intrusion detection. (CVE-2007-3279)

The Database Link library (dblink) in PostgreSQL 8.1 implements functions via CREATE statements that map to arbitrary libraries based on the C programming language, which allows remote authenticated superusers to map and execute a function from any library, as demonstrated by using the system function in libc.so.6 to gain shell access. (CVE-2007-3280)

Updated packages fix these issues, by requiring non-superusers who use /contrib/dblink to use only password authentication.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
67639	Oracle Linux 3 : postgresql (ELSA-2008-0039)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67638	Oracle Linux 5 : Moderate: / postgresql (ELSA-2008-0038)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	critical
60343	Scientific Linux Security Update : postgresql on SL3.x, SL4.x, SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	high
30120	GLSA-200801-15 : PostgreSQL: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	high
29978	Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 6.10 / 7.04 / 7.10 : postgresql vulnerabilities (USN-568-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
29968	Debian DSA-1463-1 : postgresql-7.4 - several vulnerabilities	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
29956	RHEL 3 : postgresql (RHSA-2008:0039)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
29955	RHEL 4 / 5 : postgresql (RHSA-2008:0038)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
29937	Debian DSA-1460-1 : postgresql-8.1 - several vulnerabilities	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
29934	CentOS 3 : postgresql (CESA-2008:0039)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
29933	CentOS 4 / 5 : postgresql (CESA-2008:0038)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
4333	PostgreSQL Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus Network Monitor	Database	high
26188	Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : postgresql (MDKSA-2007:188)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	critical

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2007-3278

critical

Tenable Plugins

high

critical

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

critical