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Microsoft examines the Darknet

Among the papers presented at the ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management last week was one entitled "The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution" written by four Microsoft engineers. The paper is available, in MS Word format, naturally.

The "darknet," as described in the paper, is the copyright-violating underground so feared by the entertainment industry, along with the technological infrastructure which supports content sharing. Several techniques for shutting down (or making life more difficult for) the darknet are examined; the authors conclude that these techniques are likely to be ineffective.

For example, the paper points out that the weak points of most file sharing networks are global indexes and lack of anonymous sharing. A global index is an obvious target for an irate corporation and its lawyers, as Napster discovered. Traceable sharing can be used to track down (and prosecute) individuals who are sharing content. But these activities will only have the effects of (1) encouraging more distributed, difficult to trace networks, and (2) splitting trading networks into smaller, interlinked networks of people who know and trust each other. The long-term effect on file sharing volume is likely to be small.

Given that, one might look at ways to keep content from getting into the darknet in the first place. Digital rights management and copy protection systems, it is noted, have, almost without exception, been broken. Since only one system need be broken to allow the injection of unprotected content into the darknet, DRM systems are not seen as being effective in shutting down sharing. Watermarking schemes are, in general, easy to remove, and suffer from key management problems. Hardware which implements watermarking is also at a competitive disadvantage, unless such technology is mandated legally for all devices. "The recently proposed Hollings bill is a step along these lines." It would be interesting to imagine the entire journey, if the CBDTPA is just "a step."

The authors conclude by saying that, for all practical purposes, the darknet can not be stopped. Business models need to take this in mind.

Consider an MP3 file sold on a web site; this costs money, but the purchased object is as useful as a version acquired from the darknet. However, a securely DRM-wrapped song is strictly less attractive: although the industry is striving for flexible licensing rules, customers will be restricted in their actions if the system is to provide meaningful security. This means that a vendor will probably make more money by selling unprotected objects than protected objects. In short, if you are competing with the darknet, you must compete on the darknet's own terms: that is convenience and low cost rather than additional security.

(Emphasis in the original).

There is little here that has not been said before. The message seems to have been heard a little more widely this time, however, perhaps a a result of the authors' Microsoft affiliation. Whether the entertainment industry will hear the message remains to be seen, however; that industry still seems far more interested in controlling our computers and interactions than in providing convenience and low cost.

Comments (3 posted)

New vulnerabilities

gtetrinet: buffer overflows

Package(s):gtetrinet CVE #(s):
Created:November 25, 2002 Updated:December 11, 2002
Description: Several buffer overflows were found in gtetrinet versions below 0.4.3. According to the authors these could be remotely exploited.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-205-1 2002-12-10
Gentoo 200211-006 2002-11-20

Comments (none posted)

kdelibs: Vulnerabilities in KIO subsystem support

Package(s):kdelibs CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1281 CAN-2002-1282
Created:November 22, 2002 Updated:March 15, 2003
Description: Vulnerabilities were discovered in the KIO subsystem support for various network protocols. The implementation of the rlogin protocol affects all KDE versions from 2.1 up to 3.0.4, while the flawed implementation of the telnet protocol only affects KDE 2.x. They allow a carefully crafted URL in an HTML page, HTML email, or other KIO-enabled application to execute arbitrary commands as the victim with their privilege. The KDE team provided a patch for KDE3 which has been applied in these packages. No patch was provided for KDE2, however the KDE team recommends disabling both the rlogin and telnet KIO protocols. This can be accomplished by removing, as root, the following files:
/usr/share/services/telnet.protocol and
/usr/share/services/rlogin.protocol.
If either file also exists in a user's ~/.kde/share/services directory, they should likewise be removed. See also: http://www.kde.org/info/security/advisory-20021111-1.txt
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-012.0 2003-03-14
Debian DSA-204-1 2002-12-05
Red Hat RHSA-2002:220-40 2002-12-04
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:079 2002-11-21

Comments (none posted)

Updated vulnerabilities

Apache shared memory scoreboard vulnerabilities

Package(s):apache CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0839
Created:October 9, 2002 Updated:December 18, 2002
Description: Versions of Apache prior to 1.3.27 contain a couple of scoreboard-related vulnerabilities which can be exploited by local users running under the Apache user ID. In-server scripting languages, such as PHP, are the most likely means of carrying out the attacks. One vulnerability causes the server to fork off new processes, leading to denial of service scenarios; the other allows an attacker to send SIGUSR1 to any process as root, probably killing that process. See this iDEFENSE advisory for the details.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:068-1 2002-12-18
SCO Group CSSA-2002-056.0 2002-12-05
Debian DSA-195-1 2002-11-13
Debian DSA-188-1 2002-11-05
Debian DSA-187-1 2002-11-04
Trustix 2002-0069 2002-10-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:067 2002-10-15
Gentoo apache-20021015 2002-10-15
EnGarde ESA-20021007-024 2002-10-07
Conectiva CLA-2002:530 2002-10-07
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.009 2002-10-04

Comments (3 posted)

Heap corruption vulnerability in at

Package(s):at at, sudo, xchat CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0004
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:May 15, 2003
Description: The at command has a potentially exploitable heap corruption bug. (First LWN report:  January 17th).
Alerts:
EnGarde ESA-20030515-015 2003-05-15
Yellow Dog YDU-20020127-9 2002-01-27
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:003 2001-01-16
Slackware sl-1011706104 2002-01-22
Red Hat RHSA-2002:015-15 2002-02-07
Red Hat RHSA-2002:015-13 2002-01-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:007 2002-01-18
Debian DSA-102-2 2002-01-18
Debian DSA-102-1 2002-01-16

Comments (none posted)

BIND8: Multiple vulnerabilities

Package(s):bind CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1219 CAN-2002-1220 CAN-2002-1221
Created:November 13, 2002 Updated:March 6, 2003
Description: Three new vulnerabilities have been found in version 8 of the Berkeley Internet Domain Server; see this ISS advisory, the CERT Advisory CA-2002-31, or the November 14 LWN Security Page for details.

Red Hat has sent out an alert (not a regular advisory) suggesting that customers apply its previous BIND updates, which upgrade the system to BIND9.

Alerts:
Sorcerer SORCERER2003-03-06 2003-03-06
SCO Group CSSA-2002-059.0 2002-12-19
Trustix 2002-0076 2002-11-15
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.011 2002-11-15
Debian DSA-196-1 2002-11-14
Conectiva CLA-2002:546 2002-11-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:077 2002-11-14
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:044 2002-11-13
EnGarde ESA-20021114-029 2002-11-14

Comments (1 posted)

bind buffer overflow vulnerability in DNS resolver libraries

Package(s):bind glibc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0651 CAN-2002-0684
Created:July 8, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: The BIND 4.9.8-OW2 patch and BIND 4.9.9 release (and thus 4.9.9-OW1) include fixes for a libc related vulnerability which does not affect Linux. Updates from the Internet Software Consortium (ISC) are available from here.

No release or branch of Openwall GNU/*/Linux (Owl) is known to be affected, due to Olaf Kirch's fixes for this problem getting into the GNU C library more than two years ago.

Unfortunatly that does not mean that Linux systems are not vulnerable. Similar code, without Olaf Firch's fixes, is in the glibc getnetbyXXX functions. These functions are described in the SuSE alert as " used by very few applications only, such as ifconfig and ifuser, which makes exploits less likely."

CERT Advisory: CA-2002-19 Buffer Overflow in Multiple DNS Resolver Libraries

CAN-2002-0651
CAN-2002-0684

Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:050 2002-08-13
Yellow Dog YDU-20020810-3 2002-08-10
Eridani ERISA-2002:035 2002-08-09
Red Hat RHSA-2002:133-13 2002-08-08
SCO Group CSSA-2002-034.0 2002-08-05
Yellow Dog YDU-20020801-2 2002-08-01
Eridani ERISA-2002:028 2002-07-25
Red Hat RHSA-2002:139-10 2002-07-22
EnGarde ESA-20020724-018 2002-07-24
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:043 2002-07-16
Trustix 2002-0061 2002-07-15
Gentoo glibc-20020713 2002-07-13
Conectiva CLA-2002:507 2002-07-11
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:026 2002-07-09
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.006 2002-07-04

Comments (1 posted)

Courier sqwebmail: buffer overflow

Package(s):Courier sqwebmail CVE #(s):
Created:November 15, 2002 Updated:November 19, 2002
Description: A problem in the Courier sqwebmail package, a CGI program to grant authenticated access to local mailboxes, has been discovered. The program did not drop permissions fast enough upon startup under certain circumstances so a local shell user can execute the sqwebmail binary and manage to read an arbitrary file on the local filesystem.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-197-1 2002-11-15

Comments (none posted)

dhcpcd: Character expansion vulnerability

Package(s):dhcpcd CVE #(s):
Created:November 19, 2002 Updated:January 10, 2003
Description: dhcpcd is an RFC2131 and RFC1541 compliant DHCP client daemon.

dhcpcd has the ability to execute an external script named /sbin/dhcpcd-<interface>.exe when assigning a new IP address to a network interface. This script sources a file named /var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-<interface>.info that contains several shell variables and assigments with DHCP information.

Simon Kelley pointed out a vulnerability in the way quotes inside these assignments are treated. By exploiting this, a malicious DHCP server (or attackers able to spoof DHCP responses) can execute arbitrary shell commands on the DHCP client (which is run by root).

Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:003 2003-01-09
Gentoo 200301-3 2003-01-05
Debian DSA-219-1 2002-12-31
Conectiva CLA-2002:549 2002-11-18

Comments (none posted)

Potential unauthorized root access vulnerability in dietlibc

Package(s):dietlibc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0391
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:December 5, 2002
Description: Felix von Leitner, discovered a potential division by zero bug in code derived from the SunRPC library with is used in dietlibc, a libc optimized for small size. The bug could be exploited to gain unauthorized root access to software linking to dietlibc.

CERT/CC Vulnerability Note VU#192995 Integer overflow in xdr_array() function when deserializing the XDR stream

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-055.0 2002-12-04
Debian DSA-146-2 2002-08-08
Debian DSA-146-1 2002-08-08

Comments (none posted)

dvips: command execution vulnerability

Package(s):dvips CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0836
Created:October 16, 2002 Updated:June 10, 2003
Description: The dvips utility uses the system() function improperly when managing fonts. An attacker who can craft the right sort of print job can use this vulnerability to execute commands under the UID used by the print system.
Alerts:
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-016-01 2003-06-09
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.015 2002-12-16
Debian DSA-207-1 2002-12-11
Conectiva CLA-2002:537 2002-10-29
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:071 2002-10-24
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:070 2002-10-23
Gentoo tetex-20021018 2002-10-18
Red Hat RHSA-2002:194-18 2002-10-08

Comments (none posted)

Filename disclosure vulnerability in fam

Package(s):fam CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0875
Created:August 19, 2002 Updated:January 5, 2005
Description: "fam" (file alteration monitor) watches files and directories for changes and lets interested applications know when something happens. This package has a flaw in its group handling that blocks some legitimate operations while, at the same time, exposing the names of files that should otherwise be invisible.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2005:005-01 2005-01-05
Debian DSA-154-1 2002-08-15

Comments (none posted)

Another set of fetchmail buffer overflows

Package(s):fetchmail fetchmail-ssl CVE #(s):
Created:October 1, 2002 Updated:December 17, 2002
Description: e-matters GmbH has issued an advisory warning of a new set of buffer overflows in the fetchmail header parsing code. The vulnerabilities have been fixed in fetchmail 6.1.0.
Alerts:
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.016 2002-12-17
Gentoo 200212-3 2002-12-15
SCO Group CSSA-2002-051.0 2002-11-21
Conectiva CLA-2002:531 2002-10-16
Debian DSA-171-1 2002-10-07
Red Hat RHSA-2002:215-09 2002-10-07
EnGarde ESA-20021003-023 2002-10-03
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:063 2002-10-01
Gentoo fetchmail-20021001 2002-10-01

Comments (none posted)

GNU fileutils race condition

Package(s):fileutils ucdsnmp CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0435
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:May 16, 2003
Description: A race condition in rm may cause the root user to delete the whole filesystem. The problem exists in the version of rm in fileutils 4.1 stable and 4.1.6 development version. A patch is available. (First LWN report: May 2).
Alerts:
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-010-01 2003-05-16
Red Hat RHSA-2003:015-05 2003-02-12
Trustix 2002-0052 2002-06-06
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:012 2002-04-08
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:031 2002-05-16
SCO Group CSSA-2002-018.1 2002-05-13

Comments (none posted)

Potential remote root exploit in glibc

Package(s):glibc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0391
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:June 30, 2003
Description: Felix von Leitner, discovered a potential division by zero bug in code derived from the SunRPC library which is used in glibc.This bug could be exploited to gain unauthorized root access to software linking to glibc.

Updating as soon as practical is a good idea.

Because SunRPC-derived XDR libraries are used by a variety of vendors in a variety of applications, this defect may lead to a number of differing security problems. Exploiting this vulnerability will lead to denial of service, execution of arbitrary code, or the disclosure of sensitive information.

CERT/CC Vulnerability Note VU#192995 Integer overflow in xdr_array() function when deserializing the XDR stream

Alerts:
Debian DSA-333-1 2003-06-27
Conectiva CLA-2002:535 2002-10-29
Trustix 2002-0070 2002-10-17
EnGarde ESA-20021003-021 2002-10-03
Gentoo glibc-20020927 2002-09-27
Gentoo dietlibc-20020927 2002-09-27
Debian DSA-149-2 2002-09-26
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:061 2002-09-23
Gentoo glibc-20020905 2002-09-05
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:031 2002-08-30
Trustix 2002-0067 2002-08-13
Eridani ERISA-2002:036 2002-08-13
Red Hat RHSA-2002:166-07 2002-08-12
Debian DSA-149-1 2002-08-13

Comments (none posted)

glibc: DNS stub resolvers contain buffer overflow vulnerability

Package(s):glibc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1146
Created:November 7, 2002 Updated:February 5, 2004
Description: DNS stub resolvers from multiple vendors contain a buffer overflow vulnerability. The impact of this vulnerability appears to be limited to denial of service. (See CERT Vulnerability Note VU#738331)

The BIND 4 and BIND 8.2.x stub resolver libraries, and other libraries such as glibc 2.2.5 and earlier, libc, and libresolv, uses the maximum buffer size instead of the actual size when processing a DNS response, which causes the stub resolvers to read past the actual boundary ("read buffer overflow"), allowing remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash).

Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:009 2004-02-04
Red Hat RHSA-2002:197-09 2002-11-06
Red Hat RHSA-2002:197-06 2002-10-03

Comments (none posted)

Buffer overflow in groff

Package(s):groff CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0003
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:December 9, 2002
Description: The groff package has a buffer overflow vulnerability; if it is used with the print system, it is conceivably exploitable remotely.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-057.0 2002-12-06
Gentoo groff-20021019 2002-10-19
Yellow Dog YDU-20020127-11 2002-01-27
Trustix 2002-0020 2002-01-18
Red Hat RHSA-2002:004-06 2002-01-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:012 2002-02-07

Comments (none posted)

Buffer overflow in gv

Package(s):gv CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0838
Created:October 1, 2002 Updated:November 25, 2002
Description: gv, a graphical front end to ghostscript, has a buffer overflow vulnerability which can be exploited by a properly crafted PostScript or PDF file. If a user can be tricked into viewing such a file, arbitrary code can be executed with that user's privileges. See this iDEFENSE advisory for the details.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-053.0 2002-11-22
Conectiva CLA-2002:542 2002-10-31
Debian DSA-182-1 2002-10-28
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:069 2002-10-21
Debian DSA-179-1 2002-10-18
Gentoo ggv-20021017 2002-10-17
Debian DSA-176-1 2002-10-16
Red Hat RHSA-2002:212-06 2002-09-30

Comments (none posted)

html2ps: arbitrary code execution

Package(s):html2ps CVE #(s):
Created:November 8, 2002 Updated:December 6, 2002
Description: The SuSE Security Team found a vulnerability in html2ps, a HTML to PostScript converter, that opened files based on unsanitized input insecurely. This problem can be exploited when html2ps is installed as filter within lrpng and the attacker has previously gained access to the lp account.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-192-2 2002-12-06
Debian DSA-192-1 2002-11-08

Comments (none posted)

UW imapd remotely exploitable buffer overflow

Package(s):imap CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0379
Created:June 5, 2002 Updated:December 20, 2002
Description: UW imapd versions 2000c and prior allow remote authenticated users to execute code via a buffer overflow. A malicious user can craft a request to run commands on the server under their UID and GID. (First LWN report: May 23).
Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:048 2002-12-20
Trustix 2002-0054 2002-06-06
EnGarde ESA-20020607-013 2002-06-07
Yellow Dog YDU-20020606-1 2002-06-06
Red Hat RHSA-2002:092-11 2002-05-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:034 2002-05-27
Eridani ERISA-2002:018 2002-05-25
Conectiva CLA-2002:487 2002-05-24
SCO Group CSSA-2002-021.0 2002-05-15

Comments (2 posted)

kdenetwork: buffer overflow

Package(s):kdenetwork CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1247
Created:November 11, 2002 Updated:December 20, 2002
Description: iDEFENSE reports a security vulnerability in the klisa package, that provides a LAN information service similar to "Network Neighbourhood", which was discovered by Texonet. It is possible for a local attacker to exploit a buffer overflow condition in resLISa, a restricted version of KLISa. The vulnerability exists in the parsing of the LOGNAME environment variable, an overly long value will overwrite the instruction pointer thereby allowing an attacker to seize control of the executable.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-214-1 2002-12-20
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:080 2002-11-21
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:042 2002-11-12
Debian DSA-193-1 2002-11-11

Comments (none posted)

kernel: several security issues fixed

Package(s):kernel CVE #(s):
Created:October 22, 2002 Updated:November 22, 2002
Description: A number of security fixes have gone out for the 2.2 and 2.4 kernels. There are no known exploits at this time, but upgrading will make sense anyway. As always with kernel updates, read the distributor instructions carefully; there is usually more involved than just installing a new package.
Alerts:
EnGarde ESA-20021122-030 2002-11-22
EnGarde ESA-20021022-026 2002-10-22
Trustix 2002-0068 2002-10-17
Red Hat RHSA-2002:210-06 2002-10-10
Red Hat RHSA-2002:205-15 2002-10-15
Red Hat RHSA-2002:206-12 2002-10-15

Comments (none posted)

kernel: local denial of service vulnerability

Package(s):kernel CVE #(s):
Created:November 19, 2002 Updated:February 5, 2003
Description: All versions of the Linux kernel from (at least) 2.2.x through 2.4.19 and 2.5.47 contain a vulnerability which allows any local user to crash the system. This LWN article describes how the exploit works in detail. The vulnerability affects only x86 systems.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:014 2003-02-05
Trustix 2002-0083 2002-12-19
Conectiva CLA-2002:553 2002-12-16
Red Hat RHSA-2002:264-05 2002-11-25
Trustix 2002-0077 2002-11-15
Red Hat RHSA-2002:262-07 2002-11-16

Comments (none posted)

krb5: Buffer Overflow in Kerberos Administration Daemon

Package(s):krb5, heimdal CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1235
Created:October 29, 2002 Updated:January 14, 2003
Description: CERT Advisory CA-2002-29 Buffer Overflow in Kerberos Administration Daemon

Systems Affected

  • MIT Kerberos version 4 and version 5 up to and including krb5-1.2.6
  • KTH eBones prior to version 1.2.1 and KTH Heimdal prior to version 0.5.1
  • Other Kerberos implementations derived from vulnerable MIT or KTH code

Overview

Multiple Kerberos distributions contain a remotely exploitable buffer overflow in the Kerberos administration daemon. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to gain root privileges on a vulnerable system.

The CERT/CC has received reports that indicate that this vulnerability is being exploited. In addition, MIT advisory MITKRB5-SA-2002-002 notes that an exploit is circulating.

We strongly encourage sites that use vulnerable Kerberos distributions to verify the integrity of their systems and apply patches or upgrade as appropriate.

Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:073-1 2003-01-13
Red Hat RHSA-2002:242-06 2002-11-06
Conectiva CLA-2002:534 2002-10-25
Debian DSA-185-1 2002-10-31
Debian DSA-184-1 2002-10-30
Sorcerer SORCERER2002-10-27 2002-10-27
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:073 2002-10-29
Debian DSA-183-1 2002-10-29
Gentoo kth-krb-20021026 2002-10-26

Comments (none posted)

lynx: CRLF injection vulnerability

Package(s):lynx CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1405
Created:November 19, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: If lynx is given a url with some special characters on the command line, it will include faked headers in the HTTP query. This feature can be used to force scripts (that use Lynx for downloading files) to access the wrong site on a web server with multiple virtual hosts.

CAN-2002-1405

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:720 2003-08-11
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:023 2003-02-24
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.011 2003-02-18
Red Hat RHSA-2003:029-06 2003-02-12
Trustix 2002-0085 2002-12-19
Debian DSA-210-1 2002-12-13
SCO Group CSSA-2002-049.0 2002-11-18

Comments (none posted)

perl-MailTools: remote command execution

Package(s):MailTools CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1271
Created:November 5, 2002 Updated:September 19, 2003
Description: The SuSE Security Team reviewed critical Perl modules, including the Mail::Mailer package. This package contains a security hole which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands in certain circumstances. This is due to the usage of mailx as default mailer which allows commands to be embedded in the mail body.

Note that mail processing programs which use this package can be affected by this vulnerability; in particular, SpamAssassin is vulnerable if you use the -r or -w flags.

Alerts:
Debian DSA-386-1 2003-09-18
Gentoo 200302-01 2003-02-02
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:076 2002-11-07
Gentoo 200211-001 2002-11-06
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:041 2002-11-05

Comments (none posted)

Cross-site scripting vulnerability in mhonarc

Package(s):mhonarc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0738 CAN-2002-1307 CAN-2002-1388
Created:September 11, 2002 Updated:January 3, 2003
Description: Mhonarc is an HTML formatter for electronic mail; it can be vulnerable to cross-site scripting problems when presented with maliciously crafted messages. This problem is fixed in mhonarc version 2.5.3, but it is not clear that all possible vulnerabilities have been fixed. See the Debian advisory below for information on how to disable text/html attachment support in mhonarc, which may be a more secure solution.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-221-1 2003-01-03
Debian DSA-199-1 2002-11-19
Debian DSA-163-1 2002-09-09

Comments (none posted)

PHP Remote Compromise/DOS Vulnerability

Package(s):mod_php4 CVE #(s):
Created:July 22, 2002 Updated:February 18, 2003
Description: PHP 4.2.0 and 4.2.1 have an error in the handling of POST requests which can lead to the corruption of memory, and the usual bad consequences. According to this alert, the vulnerability can only be used for denial of service on x86 systems - there is no way to get it to run exploit code. SPARC/Solaris systems are apparently vulnerable to full remote compromise.

According to the CERT Advisory, almost every Linux distributor, it seems, ships older (and thus not vulnerable) versions of PHP.

Note that, sometimes, systems thought to be safe from remote compromise turn out to be vulnerable to a modified attack, so x86 users should not relax too much. The solution, for those systems with PHP 4.2.0 or 4.2.1 installed, is to upgrade to PHP 4.2.2.

For more information see the alert from the discover of the vulnerability, Stefan Esser of e-matters GmbH, or the security advisory from the php team.

CERT Advisory: CA-2002-21 Vulnerability in PHP

Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0009 2003-02-18

Comments (1 posted)

mod_ssl: cross site scripting problem

Package(s):mod_ssl, libapache-mod-ssl CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1157
Created:October 22, 2002 Updated:December 12, 2002
Description: Joe Orton discovered a cross site scripting problem in mod_ssl, an Apache module that adds Strong cryptography (i.e. HTTPS support) to the webserver. The module will return the server name unescaped in the response to an HTTP request on an SSL port.

Like the other recent Apache XSS bugs, this only affects servers using a combination of "UseCanonicalName off" and wildcard DNS. This is very unlikely to happen, though. Apache 2.0/mod_ssl is not vulnerable since it already escapes this HTML.

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:222-21 2002-11-25
Conectiva CLA-2002:541 2002-10-30
EnGarde ESA-20021029-027 2002-10-29
Gentoo mod_ssl-20021027 2002-10-27
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:072 2002-10-24
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.010 2002-10-23
Debian DSA-181-1 2002-10-22

Comments (none posted)

Mozilla: Privacy leak and other vulnerabilities

Package(s):mozilla CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1126 CAN-2002-1091
Created:November 1, 2002 Updated:February 13, 2003
Description: Mozilla 1.1 and earlier, and Mozilla-based browsers such as Netscape and Galeon, set the document referrer too quickly in certain situations when a new page is being loaded, which allows web pages to determine the next page that is being visited, including manually entered URLs.

Netscape 6.2.3 and earlier, and Mozilla 1.0.1, allow remote attackers to corrupt heap memory and execute arbitrary code via a GIF image with a zero width.

See also Mozilla's Recently fixed security issues page.

All users are encouraged to upgrade to this latest stable 1.0.x release of Mozilla.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:568 2003-02-13
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:075 2002-10-31

Comments (none posted)

ypserv: NIS information leak

Package(s):nis, ypserv CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1232
Created:October 21, 2002 Updated:December 5, 2002
Description: Thorsten Kukuck discovered a problem in the ypserv program which is part of the Network Information Services (NIS). A memory leak in all versions of ypserv prior to 2.5 is remotely exploitable. When a malicious user could request a non-existing map the server will leak parts of an old domainname and mapname.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-054.0 2002-12-04
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:078 2002-11-18
Conectiva CLA-2002:539 2002-10-30
Gentoo 200210-010 2002-10-28
Red Hat RHSA-2002:223-07 2002-10-24
Debian DSA-180-1 2002-10-21

Comments (none posted)

Buffer overflow in nss_ldap

Package(s):nss_ldap CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0825 CAN-2002-0374
Created:October 9, 2002 Updated:December 11, 2002
Description: The nss_ldap package has a buffer overflow which can be exploited when the module configures itself from information in DNS. The problem is fixed in nss_ldap-199 and later.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-058.0 2002-12-10
Gentoo nss_ldap-20021013 2002-10-13
Red Hat RHSA-2002:175-16 2002-10-03

Comments (none posted)

nullmailer: denial of service

Package(s):nullmailer CVE #(s):
Created:November 18, 2002 Updated:November 19, 2002
Description: A problem has been discovered in nullmailer, a simple relay-only mail transport agent for hosts that relay mail to a fixed set of smart relays. When a mail is to be delivered locally to a user that doesn't exist, nullmailer tries to deliver it, discovers a user unknown error and stops delivering. Unfortunately, it stops delivering entirely, not only this mail. Hence, it's very easy to craft a denial of service.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-198-1 2002-11-18

Comments (none posted)

PHP: vulnerability in mail function

Package(s):php CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0985 CAN-2002-0986
Created:November 13, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: Two vulnerabilities exists in the mail() PHP function. The first one allows the execution of any program/script bypassing safe_mode restriction, the second one may give an open-relay script if the mail() function is not carefully used in PHP scripts. See this Bugtraq report for more details. Note that this is a different vulnerability than the previous PHP mail() problem, which affected versions through 4.1.0.

CAN-2002-0985
CAN-2002-0986

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-008.0 2003-03-04
Gentoo 200211-005 2002-11-20
EnGarde ESA-20021122-031 2002-11-22
Conectiva CLA-2002:545 2002-11-13
Red Hat RHSA-2002:213-06 2002-11-11

Comments (none posted)

Remotely exploitable vulnerability in pine

Package(s):pine CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0014
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:November 27, 2002
Description: Pine has an unpleasant vulnerability in URL handling vulnerability which can lead to command execution by remote attackers. (First LWN report:  January 17th).

This vulnerability is remotely exploitable; updating is a good idea.

Note: If an update isn't yet available for your distribution, setting enable-msg-view-urls to "off" in pine's setup will avoid the vulnerability. (Thanks to Greg Herlein).

Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:046 2002-11-25
Yellow Dog YDU-20020127-8 2002-01-27
Slackware sl-1010936849 2002-01-13
Red Hat RHSA-2002:009-06 2002-01-14
EnGarde ESA-20020114-002 2002-01-14
Conectiva CLA-2002:460 2002-01-31

Comments (none posted)

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities in PostgreSQL

Package(s):PostgreSQL CVE #(s):
Created:August 21, 2002 Updated:January 27, 2003
Description: PostgreSQL 7.2.2 has been released in response to a number of buffer overrun vulnerabilities which have been identified recently. "...it should be noted that these vulnerabilities are only critical on 'open' or 'shared' systems, as they require the ability to be able to connect to the database before they can be exploited."

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities fixed include those reported by "Sir Mordred The Traitor" in the cash_words, repeat, and lpad and rpad functions.

Alerts:
Yellow Dog YDU-20030127-5 2003-01-27
Red Hat RHSA-2003:001-16 2003-01-14
Red Hat RHSA-2003:010-10 2003-01-14
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:038 2002-10-21
Trustix 2002-0071 2002-10-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:062 2002-10-01
Conectiva CLA-2002:524 2002-09-19
Debian DSA-165-1 2002-09-12
Gentoo postgresql-20020826 2002-08-26

Comments (none posted)

Local arbitrary code execution vulnerability in Python

Package(s):python CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1119
Created:August 28, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: Zack Weinberg discovered that os._execvpe from os.py uses a predictable name which could lead to execution of arbitrary code. According to the Debian advisory, the problem was present in Python versions 1.5, 2.1 and 2.2.

CAN-2002-1119

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:202-33 2003-02-12
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.006 2003-01-23
Red Hat RHSA-2002:202-25 2003-01-21
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:082-1 2002-12-09
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:082 2002-11-25
SCO Group CSSA-2002-045.0 2002-11-14
Trustix 2002-0073 2002-10-17
Gentoo python-20021003 2002-10-03
Conectiva CLA-2002:527 2002-10-01
Debian DSA-159-2 2002-09-09
Debian DSA-159-1 2002-08-28

Comments (none posted)

Multiple-use vulnerability in Safe.pm

Package(s):Safe.pm CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1323
Created:October 9, 2002 Updated:February 20, 2004
Description: usePerl has a description of a vulnerability in the Safe.pm Perl module. It seems that if a Safe compartment is used more than once, it ceases to be safe. The problem is fixed in Safe 2.08.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2004-007.0 2004-02-20
Gentoo 200212-6 2002-12-20
Trustix 2002-0087 2002-12-19
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.014 2002-12-16
Debian DSA-208-1 2002-12-12

Comments (none posted)

samba: buffer overflow

Package(s):samba CVE #(s):
Created:November 20, 2002 Updated:November 29, 2002
Description: A buffer overflow has been found in Samba versions 2.2.2 through 2.2.6; while no known exploit exists as of this writing, it is, possibly, remotely exploitable. Upgrading to Samba 2.2.7 fixes the problem.
Alerts:
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.012 2002-11-29
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:081 2002-11-25
Trustix 2002-0080 2002-11-21
Gentoo 200211-007 2002-11-21
Debian DSA-200-1 2002-11-22
Red Hat RHSA-2002:266-05 2002-11-21
Conectiva CLA-2002:550 2002-11-22
Slackware sl-1037901206 2002-11-21
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:045 2002-11-20

Comments (none posted)

sendmail smrsh bypass vulnerability

Package(s):sendmail CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1165
Created:October 2, 2002 Updated:November 29, 2002
Description: iDEFENSE has posted an advisory warning of a couple of ways of bypassing the restrictions imposed by the sendmail "smrsh" utility. smrsh puts limits on which programs a user may run out of a .forward file; this vulnerability could give a local user undesired access to the mail server system. A patch has been made available from sendmail.org which closes the vulnerability.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:083 2002-11-28
SCO Group CSSA-2002-052.0 2002-11-21
Conectiva CLA-2002:532 2002-10-16
Gentoo sendmail-20021013 2002-10-13

Comments (none posted)

squirrelmail: cross-site scripting vulnerability

Package(s):squirrelmail CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1131 CAN-2002-1132
Created:October 16, 2002 Updated:January 2, 2003
Description: The Squirrelmail web mail package has a cross-site scriptinog vulnerability; versions 1.2.7 and prior are affected. See the advisory for details.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-220-1 2003-01-02
Gentoo 200212-4 2002-12-15
Debian DSA-191-2 2002-11-07
Debian DSA-191-1 2002-11-07
Red Hat RHSA-2002:204-10 2002-10-09

Comments (none posted)

File overwrite vulnerability in tar and unzip

Package(s):tar unzip CVE #(s):CAN-2001-1267 CAN-2001-1268 CAN-2001-1269 CAN-2002-0399
Created:October 1, 2002 Updated:April 10, 2006
Description: The tar utility does not properly filter file names containing "../", meaning that a hostile archive can, if unpacked by an unsuspecting user, overwrite any file that is writable by that user. GNU tar versions 1.13.19 and earlier are vulnerable; unzip through version 5.42 has the same vulnerability.
Alerts:
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:183571-1 2006-04-04
Red Hat RHSA-2006:0195-01 2006-02-21
Conectiva CLA-2002:538 2002-10-29
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:066 2002-10-10
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:065 2002-10-10
EnGarde ESA-20021003-022 2002-10-03
Gentoo unzip-20021001 2002-10-01
Gentoo tar-20021001 2002-10-01
Red Hat RHSA-2002:096-24 2002-09-18

Comments (1 posted)

tcpdump: buffer overflow

Package(s):tcpdump CVE #(s):
Created:November 20, 2002 Updated:December 19, 2002
Description: A new buffer overflow in the printing of BGP packets could, conceivably, be remotely exploitable.
Alerts:
Trustix 2002-0084 2002-12-19
Debian DSA-206-1 2002-12-10
SCO Group CSSA-2002-050.0 2002-11-19

Comments (none posted)

Multiple vendor telnetd vulnerability

Package(s):telnet Telnet netkit-telnet-ssl kerberos telnetd netkit-telnet nkitb/nkitserv/telnetd krb5 CVE #(s):
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:October 5, 2004
Description: This vulnerability, originally thought to be confined to BSD-derived systems, was first covered in the July 26th Security Summary. It is now known that Linux telnet daemons are vulnerable as well.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200410-03 2004-10-05
Yellow Dog YDU-20010810-2 2001-08-10
Yellow Dog YDU-20010810-1 2001-08-10
SuSE SuSE-SA:2001:029 2001-09-03
Slackware sl-997726350 2001-08-09
Red Hat RHSA-2001:100-02 2001-08-09
Red Hat RHSA-2001:099-09 2002-02-07
Red Hat RHSA-2001:099-06 2001-08-09
Progeny PROGENY-SA-2001-27 2001-08-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2001:093 2001-12-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2001:068 2001-08-13
HP HPSBTL0202-023 2002-02-12
Debian DSA-075-2 2001-08-14
Debian DSA-075-1 2001-08-14
Conectiva CLA-2001:413 2001-08-24
SCO Group CSSA-2001-030.0 2001-08-10

Comments (none posted)

Tomcat 4.x JSP source code exposure vulnerability

Package(s):tomcat CVE #(s):
Created:September 25, 2002 Updated:January 29, 2003
Description: Rossen Raykov reports that Tomcat 4.0.5 and 4.1.12 fix a JSP source code exposure vulnerability in "Tomcat 4.0.4 and 4.1.10 (probably all other earlier versions also).". The current version of Tomcat is available here.

Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies. The Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications are developed by Sun under the Java Community Process.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-246-1 2003-01-29
Debian DSA-225-1 2002-01-09
Gentoo tomcat-20021015 2002-10-15
Debian DSA-169-1 2002-10-04
Gentoo tomcat-20020925 2002-09-25

Comments (none posted)

traceroute-nanog: buffer overflow and root exploit

Package(s):traceroute-nanog/nkitb CVE #(s):
Created:November 12, 2002 Updated:February 27, 2003
Description: Traceroute is a tool that can be used to track packets in a TCP/IP network to determine it's route or to find out about not working routers. Traceroute-nanog requires root privilege to open a raw socket. It does not relinquish these privileges after doing so. This allows a malicious user to gain root access by exploiting a buffer overflow at a later point.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-254-1 2003-02-27
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:043 2002-11-12

Comments (none posted)

webalizer: reverse DNS buffer overflow vulnerability

Package(s):webalizer CVE #(s):
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:January 27, 2003
Description: The cause is a buffer overflow bug. This one sounds nasty. If reverse DNS lookups are enabled in webalizer, "an attacker with control over the victims DNS may spoof responses thus triggering a buffer overflow, potentially leading to a root compromise." Webalizer 2.01-10 "fixes this and a few other buglets that have been discovered in the last month or so". (First LWN report:  April 18th, 2002).
Alerts:
Yellow Dog YDU-20030127-4 2003-01-27
Red Hat RHSA-2002:254-05 2002-12-04
SCO Group CSSA-2002-036.0 2002-10-22
EnGarde ESA-20020423-009 2002-04-23
Conectiva CLA-2002:476 2002-04-26

Comments (none posted)

Webmin/Usermin vulnerabilities

Package(s):webmin CVE #(s):
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:January 10, 2003
Description: Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Webmin has cross-site scripting and session ID spoofing vulnerabilities which are fixed in the May 6, 2002 release of version 0.970. (First LWN report: May 9).

This one is scary. The session ID spoofing vulnerability allows the "possibility that arbitrary commands may be executed with root privileges." Upgrading is strongly recommended. At a minimum avoid the "preconditions for a successful exploit" by disabling password timeouts under Webmin->Configuration->Authentication.

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-002.0 2003-01-09
Yellow Dog YDU-20020522-7 2002-05-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:033 2002-05-21

Comments (1 posted)

wmaker: buffer overflow in Window Maker image handling code

Package(s):wmaker windowmaker CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1277
Created:November 7, 2002 Updated:February 6, 2003
Description: Al Viro found a problem in the image handling code used in Window Maker, a popular NEXTSTEP like window manager. When creating an image it would allocate a buffer by multiplying the image width and height, but did not check for an overflow. This makes it possible to overflow the buffer. This could be exploited by using specially crafted image files (for example when previewing themes).
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:043-12 2003-02-05
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:085 2002-12-02
Conectiva CLA-2002:548 2002-11-18
Debian DSA-190-1 2002-11-07

Comments (none posted)

Multiple vulnerabilities in wordtrans

Package(s):wordtrans CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0837
Created:September 11, 2002 Updated:February 4, 2003
Description: The "wordtrans" interface to multilingual dictionaries suffers from input validation and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities; versions through 1.1pre8 are vulnerable. See this Guardent advisory for details.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:188-08 2002-09-05

Comments (none posted)

Problems with libgtop_daemon

Package(s):wuftpd libgtop CVE #(s):
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: The libgtop_daemon package is a GNOME program which makes system information available remotely. LWN reported the remotely exploitable format string and buffer overflow vulnerabilities in that package on December 6th. On November 28th disabling the libgtop_daemon on systems where it is running until an update is available.

Many Linux systems do not run libgtop by default, but applying the update is a good idea anyway.

Alerts:
Debian DSA-301-1 2003-05-07
Mandrake MDKSA-2001:094 2001-12-19
Debian DSA-098-1 2002-01-09
Conectiva CLA-2002:448 2002-01-03

Comments (1 posted)

Wwwoffle remote privilege escalation vulnerability

Package(s):wwwoffle CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0818
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: The wwwoffle web proxy incorrectly processes HTTP PUT and POST requests with negative Content Length values. "It is believed that an attacker could exploit this bug to gain remote wwwrun access to the system wwwoffled is running on."

CAN-2002-0818

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-048.0 2002-11-18
Debian DSA-144-1 2002-08-06
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:029 2002-08-01

Comments (none posted)

Denial of service vulnerability in xinetd

Package(s):xinetd CVE #(s):
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:December 3, 2002
Description: A file descriptor leak into services started from xinetd may be used, by programs it stats, to crash xinetd. Xinetd is a replacement for the BSD derived inetd.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:196-19 2002-12-02
Red Hat RHSA-2002:196-09 2002-10-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:053 2002-08-26
Gentoo xinetd-20020814 2002-08-14
Debian DSA-151-1 2002-08-13

Comments (none posted)

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