Oracle Critical Patch Update - October 2006

Description

A Critical Patch Update is a collection of patches for multiple security vulnerabilities. It also includes non-security fixes that are required (because of interdependencies) by those security patches. This Critical Patch Update contains 101 new security fixes across all products.

Supported Products and Components Affected

Security vulnerabilities addressed by this Critical Patch Update affect the products listed in the categories below. The product area of the patches for the listed versions is shown in [square brackets] following the product versions. Please click on the link in [square brackets] or in the Patch Availability Table to access the documentation for those patches.

Product releases and versions that are in Premier Support or Extended Support, under the Oracle Lifetime Support policy; or Error Correction Support (ECS) or Extended Maintenance Support (EMS), under the previous support policy:

Products and components that are bundled with the products listed in Category I:

Products that are de-supported as a standalone installation but are supported when installed with the products listed in Category I:

Patches for Category III products are only available when these products are installed as part of Category I products, and are tested solely on supported configurations and environments. Please refer to the documentation for each product for specific details concerning the support and availability of patches.

Products that are supported only on selected platforms. Please consult the additional documentation for details.

New for the October 2006 Critical Patch Update

The following improvements have been made to the advisory format:

• The risk matrices now use the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to summarize vulnerabilities. Oracle continues to provide additional information consistent with that in risk matrices for previous Critical Patch Updates. More information about the new risk matrix columns and Oracle's implementation of the CVSS standard can be found in the References section.
• Each product suite contains a brief executive summary of the number and type of vulnerabilities newly fixed in this Critical Patch Update.
• Client applicability information, listing patches that need to be applied to machines other than servers, is now listed per product suite.

Patch Availability Table and Risk Matrices

The Oracle Database, Oracle Application Server, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, Oracle Collaboration Suite, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, JD Edwards OneWorld Tools, PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal Applications and PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools patches in the Updates are cumulative; each Critical Patch Update contains the fixes from the previous Critical Patch Updates.

Oracle E-Business Suite and Applications patches are not cumulative, so E-Business Suite and Applications customers should refer to previous Critical Patch Updates to identify previous fixes they want to apply.

For each Oracle product being administered, please consult the documentation for patch availability information and installation instructions referenced from the following table. For an overview of the Oracle product documentation related to this Critical Patch Update, please refer to the Oracle Critical Patch Update October 2006 Documentation Map, MetaLink Note 391560.1.

Risk Matrix Content

Risk matrices list only security vulnerabilities that are newly fixed by the patches associated with this advisory. Risk matrices for previous fixes can be found in previous Critical Patch Update advisories.

Several vulnerabilities addressed in this Critical Patch Update affect multiple products. The same vulnerability appears with the same Vuln # in all risk matrices. Italics indicate vulnerabilities in code included from other product areas.

Oracle conducts an analysis of each security vulnerability addressed by a Critical Patch Update (CPU) or a Security Alert. Results of the security analysis are reflected in the associated documentation describing, for example, the type of vulnerability, the conditions required to exploit it and the result of a successful exploit. Oracle provides this information, in part, so that customers may conduct their own risk analysis based on the particulars of their product usage. As a matter of policy, Oracle does not disclose detailed information about an exploit condition or results that can be used to conduct a successful exploit. Oracle will not provide additional information about the specifics of vulnerabilities beyond what is provided in the CPU or Security Alert notification, the Patch Availability Matrix, the readme files, and FAQs. Oracle does not provide advance notification on CPU or Security Alerts to individual customers. Finally, Oracle does not distribute exploit code nor “proof-of-concept” code for vulnerabilities in our products.

Workarounds

Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that fixes are applied as soon as possible. Depending on your environment, it may be possible to reduce the risk of successful attack by restricting network protocols required by an attack. For attacks that require certain privileges or access to certain packages, removing the privileges or the ability to access the packages from untrusted users may help reduce the risk of successful attack. Both approaches may break application functionality, so Oracle strongly recommends changes are tested on non-production systems. Neither approach should be considered a long term solution as neither corrects the underlying problem.

Unsupported Products and De-Supported Versions

Unsupported products, releases and versions are not tested for the presence of vulnerabilities addressed by this Critical Patch Update. However, it is likely that earlier patch sets of affected releases are also affected by these vulnerabilities.

Supported products are patched in accordance with the Critical Patch Update policy summarized in the CPU Frequently Asked Questions document linked from the References section.

Critical Patch Update patches are available for customers who have purchased Extended Maintenance Support (EMS) before the implementation of the Lifetime Support Policy. De-support Notices indicate whether EMS is available for a particular release and platform, as well as the specific period during which EMS will be available.

Customers with valid licenses for product versions covered by Extended Support (ES), before the implementation of the Lifetime Support Policy, are entitled to download existing fixes; but new issues that may arise from the application of patches are not covered under ES. Therefore, ES customers should have comprehensive plans to enable removal of any applied patch.

Critical Patch Update patches are not provided for product versions which are no longer covered under the Extended Maintenance Support plan or the Lifetime Support Policy. We recommend that customers upgrade to the latest supported version of Oracle products in order to obtain patches.

Please review the "Extended Support" section within the Technical Support Policies for further guidelines regarding ES and EMS.

Credits

The following people discovered and brought security vulnerabilities addressed by this Critical Patch Update to Oracle's attention: Johannes Fahrenkrug; Sacha Faust of S.P.I. Dynamics, Inc.; Esteban Martinez Fayo of Application Security, Inc.; Jeff Kayser of Database Doctor, Inc.; Alexander Kornbrust of Red Database Security GmbH; David Litchfield of Next Generation Security Software Ltd.; and Andrew Maksimenko of COMEC-92.

Critical Patch Update Schedule

Critical Patch Updates are released on the Tuesday closest to the 15th day of January, April, July and October. The next four dates are:

• 16 January 2007
• 17 April 2007
• 17 July 2007
• 16 October 2007

• Oracle Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts   [ Oracle Technology Network ]
• Critical Patch Update - October 2006 Documentation Map   [ MetaLink Note 391560.1 ]
• Oracle Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts - Frequently Asked Questions [ MetaLink Note 360470.1 ]
• Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Risk Matrix definitions   [ MetaLink Note 394486.1 ]   [ Customer Connection ]
• Use of Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) by Oracle   [ MetaLink Note 394487.1 ]   [ Customer Connection ]
• List of public vulnerabilities fixed in Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts   [ Oracle Technology Network ]

Modification History

Oracle Database Executive Summary

This Critical Patch Update contains a total of 63 new security fixes for Oracle Database products, divided as follows:

• 22 new security fixes for the Oracle Database, all of which require a valid database username and password.
• 6 new security fixes for Oracle HTTP Server, 5 of which may be remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e. they may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password. Oracle HTTP Server is an optional product that is not installed by default with the Oracle Database. If it has not been installed, this software will not be present and the Oracle HTTP Server patches are not required. Oracle Database versions up to and including Oracle Database 9i Release 2 allowed Oracle HTTP Server to be installed as an optional component of the database. Oracle Database versions 10g Release 1 and higher include Oracle HTTP Server on the Companion CD.
• 35 new security fixes for Oracle Application Express, 25 of which may be remotely exploitable without authentication. Oracle Application Express is an optional product that is not installed with the Oracle Database. If it has not been installed (it is provided on the Companion CD in the Oracle Database CD set for some Oracle Database versions), this software will not be present and the patches are not required.

No new fixes are applicable to Oracle Database client-only installations, i.e. installations that do not have the Oracle Database installed.

Oracle Database Client-only Installations

The new database vulnerabilities addressed by this Critical Patch Update do not affect Oracle Database Client-only installations (installations that do not have the Oracle Database installed). Therefore, it is not necessary to apply this Critical Patch Update to client-only installations if a prior Critical Patch Update, or Alert 68, has already been applied to the client-only installations.

Client-side software in the middle tier is patched as part of the general middle tier patch and customers do not need to apply additional patches. Exceptions will be documented in the Patch Availability Document or Pre-Installation Note, depending on the product.

Notes:

• OHS07 is only applicable to the HP Tru64 UNIX platform. Other supported platforms are not vulnerable. Supported versions of Oracle Application Server are not vulnerable.

Overview of Oracle Application Express (Formerly Called Oracle HTML DB)

Oracle Application Express (formerly called Oracle HTML DB), is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle Database. Unless you separately installed Oracle Application Express from a Companion CD supplied with the Oracle Database CD set or from a packaged downloaded from an Oracle web site, it will not be present on your system and no further action is required.

The Companion CD to Database 10g Release 1 shipped with HTML DB (currently labeled as Application Express) version 1.5.
The Companion CD to Database 10g Release 2 shipped with HTML DB (currently labeled as Application Express) version 1.6.1.

To check for the presence of Application Express on a system, run the following command from a SQL prompt as SYS:
select username from dba_users where username in ('FLOWS_010500','FLOWS_010600','FLOWS_020000','FLOWS_020200');

If the result is 'no rows selected' then no version of the product is installed and no further action is required. Other output indicates Oracle Application Express is installed and should be upgraded, even if it is not actively in use.

Upgrading Oracle Application Express

The Oracle Application Express security vulnerabilities listed in the risk matrix above are fixed in version 2.2.1. All previous versions should be upgraded directly to version 2.2.1. Instructions on upgrading and the software to install Oracle Application Express version 2.2.1 can be found on:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/download.html

Oracle Application Server Executive Summary

This Critical Patch Update contains 14 new security fixes for the Oracle Application Server, 13 of which may be remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e. they may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password. 3 of the new fixes are applicable to client-only installations of Oracle Reports Developer and Oracle Containers for J2EE. Patches for this Critical Patch Update should be applied to all machines that have these products installed.

This Critical Patch Update also contains 6 new security fixes for Oracle Application Server products that are not supported for standalone use, but are supported for use as part of supported products, i.e. those listed in the Category I section. All 6 may be remotely exploitable without authentication. More details of these fixes can be found in the sections of this document covering: Oracle Database, Oracle Collaboration Suite and Oracle E-Business Suite. They are not discussed further in this section, as they do not apply to Oracle Application Server standalone instances.

Oracle Application Server products that are bundled with the Oracle Database are affected by the vulnerabilities listed in the Oracle Database section. They are not discussed further in this section and are not listed in the Oracle Application Server risk matrix.