TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Express Backup Server Heap Overflow Vulnerability

ZDI-08-001: January 14th, 2008

CVE ID

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

    Tivoli Storage Manager Express

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Express. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability.

The specific flaw resides in the TSM Express Backup Server service, dsmsvc.exe, which listens by default on TCP port 1500. The process trusts a user-supplied length value. By supplying a large number, an attacker can overflow a static heap buffer leading to arbitrary code execution in the context of the SYSTEM user.

Vendor Response

IBM has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:

Disclosure Timeline

    2007-12-05 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2008-01-14 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Sebastian Apelt