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SolarisOperating system · Oracle

CVE-2023-21985

HIGH · 7.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-04-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High

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 · unedited
Vulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Utility). Supported versions that are affected are 10 and 11. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle Solaris executes to compromise Oracle Solaris. Successful attacks require human interaction from a person other than the attacker and while the vulnerability is in Oracle Solaris, attacks may significantly impact additional products (scope change). Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle Solaris. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 7.7 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

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 · moderate confidence

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Oracle Solaris Utility component (versions 10 and 11) allowing a high-privileged attacker with local system access to achieve full system compromise through human interaction from another person. The changed scope indicates potential impact to additional products beyond Oracle Solaris itself.

MitigationApply Oracle's security patches for CVE-2023-21985 when available; restrict physical and logical access to Solaris systems; enforce least-privilege principles; monitor for suspicious local privilege escalation attempts.

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
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 10= 11

CVSS 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
High
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Oracle Solaris version
    Run 'uname -a' or 'cat /etc/release' to confirm the installed Oracle Solaris version is 10 or 11
    Affected if The system runs Oracle Solaris version 10 or 11 exactly as listed in affected versions
  2. Locate Solaris Utility component
    Check for the presence of Oracle Solaris Utility components by examining /usr/sbin/ or /opt directory for utility binaries, or run 'pkginfo -l SUNW' to list installed Solaris packages
    Affected if Solaris Utility packages are installed on the system
  3. Verify current user privileges
    Run 'id' and 'whoami' commands to determine the current user's privilege level
    Affected if The current user has elevated privileges (root, sysadmin, or other high-privileged accounts) and can access the vulnerable utility component
  4. Inspect system access controls
    Review /etc/login.conf, /etc/sudoers, and PAM configuration files in /etc/pam.d/ for authentication settings that control local access
    Affected if Local access controls are minimal or unconstrained, allowing unauthorized local users to interact with privileged components
  5. Check for recent privilege escalation indicators
    Review audit logs in /var/audit/ and system logs in /var/adm/messages for commands executing with elevated privileges from untrusted local accounts
    Affected if Audit logs show unexpected execution of privileged commands by local users without proper authorization

A system is affected if it runs Oracle Solaris 10 or 11 and has the Solaris Utility component accessible to local users with elevated privileges, as the vulnerability enables privilege escalation from high-privileged to root access.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Oracle's security patches for CVE-2023-21985 when available; restrict physical and logical access to Solaris systems; enforce least-privilege principles; monitor for suspicious local privilege escalation attempts.

Fix this in Solaris Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-21985 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data