An Oracle DB user which has been granted CREATE ANY DIRECTORY can use that system privilege to grant themselves the SYSDBA system privilege by creating a DIRECTORY pointing to the password file location on the OS and then overwriting it with a previously prepared known binary password file using UTL_FILE.PUT_RAW from within the DB.

This paper will show how the issue can be exploited and most importantly how to secure against it. This is an original vulnerability affecting current versions of the DB and please note that Oracle Corp’s Security Department have already been informed in accordance with ethical procedures and have given their permission to publish.

Proof of concept code tested on 10.1, 10.2 and 11g on both Linux and Windows and is available below.

Here is the paper.

Here is the code.