CREATE ANY DIRECTORY to SYSDBA
I have found a serious privilege escalation in the Oracle DB that raises a
lower privileged user with CREATE ANY DIRECTORY to that of SYSDBA by directly
overwriting the hidden binary password file with a known binary password file
via UTL_DIR. Full discussion of how to defend and respond to this are included
and YES Oracle have been forewarned.
All Oracle DB folks should read this ASAP.
http://www.oracleforensics.com/wordpress/index.php/2008/10/10/create-any-directory-to-sysdba/