CVE-2019-4253
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIBM Informix Dynamic Server Enterprise Edition 12.1 could allow a local privileged Informix user to load a malicious shared library and gain root access privileges. IBM X-Force ID: 159941.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceIBM Informix Dynamic Server Enterprise Edition 12.1 contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability where a privileged Informix user can load a malicious shared library (likely via LD_PRELOAD or similar library injection mechanism) to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 12.10CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if IBM Informix Dynamic Server is installedRun 'ls -la $INFORMIXDIR' or check common Informix installation paths such as '/opt/IBM/informix', '/usr/informix', or search for 'oninit' binary using 'which oninit' or 'find / -name oninit -type f 2>/dev/null'Affected if Informix is installed and running on the system
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Determine the installed Informix versionExecute 'oninit -version' or 'onstat -' as the informix user, or check the version file typically located in $INFORMIXDIR/etc/version.txtAffected if The version matches 12.10 (specifically 12.10.x)
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Check if Informix runs with root privilegesRun 'ps -ef | grep oninit' to inspect the process owner, or check the Informix startup script ownership and permissions in /etc/init.d/ or /etc/rc.d/Affected if The oninit process runs as root user
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Detect if library injection preload mechanisms are accessibleCheck file permissions on the informix user's home directory and $INFORMIXDIR for world-writable permissions using 'ls -la', and inspect if LD_PRELOAD environment variable could be set by the informix userAffected if The informix user can write to directories where the Informix process loads libraries, or if LD_PRELOAD can be injected into the process environment
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Inspect for unauthorized shared libraries in Informix directoriesSearch for recently added .so files in $INFORMIXDIR, $INFORMIXDIR/lib, $INFORMIXDIR/lib/esql, and /tmp using 'find $INFORMIXDIR -name "*.so" -mtime -30' to find libraries created or modified in the last 30 daysAffected if Unexpected .so files exist in Informix library paths or /tmp that were recently created
A system is affected if IBM Informix Dynamic Server version 12.10 is installed, runs as root, and the informix user has the ability to inject shared libraries into the Informix process via LD_PRELOAD or similar mechanisms.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply the IBM patch for CVE-2019-4253 immediately. Restrict local access to trusted Informix administrators only and monitor for unauthorized library loading.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-4253 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-4253 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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