CVE-2012-2697

Vulnerability

In autofs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, an unspecified vulnerability exists when using LDAP-based automount maps. Due to a flaw in a patch for LDAP paged results on 64-bit PowerPC and IBM System z platforms (RHBA-2012:0264), autofs can crash or fail to process mount requests [2]. All versions of autofs affected are those shipped with RHEL 5.

Exploitation

A local user can trigger the vulnerability by utilizing an LDAP-based automount map that causes autofs to encounter an error with LDAP server responses [2]. The affected platforms are 64-bit PowerPC and IBM System z [2]. No special privileges are required beyond local access to the system.

Impact

Successful exploitation results in a denial of service: autofs crashes or enters a state where it cannot process new mount requests, and mount expiration is prevented [2]. Existing mounts may remain operational, but future mounts are blocked until autofs is restarted [2].

Mitigation

Red Hat released an update in RHSA-2013:0132 [1]. Users should update the autofs package to the fixed version. No workaround is documented; restarting autofs temporarily restores function but does not prevent recurrence.