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Security
Security news
The Ptech Incident
[Editor's note: this article was contributed by LWN reader Tom Owen.]Federal and state agents who visited Quincy, Mass. software house Ptech last week were probably mostly looking for financial links to al-Qaeda. So perhaps it's just an unfortunate co-incidence that by Wednesday morning the Ptech customer list had been removed from their web site. It was still cached at Google, though, and the names on it are a testament to the lure of the product and efficiency of the Ptech sales team. How happy the US Air Force, NATO, Mitre and the FBI are to discover that their knowledge management software comes from a firm under such detailed investigation has yet to emerge, but officials for the White House and the US Attorney in Boston have certainly been quick to say that the software presents no obvious risk. Which raises the question: how do they know?
Sensitive government and defense agencies probably won't load their operational information on to a knowledge management system without some sort of scrutiny of the software. There's no need for an Open Source license -- any client with sufficient clout can cut a deal for source access. The trouble is that a $1000 per day security consultant, faced with half a million lines of Visual Basic and a non-disclosure agreement, is going to need extraordinary powers to find twenty lines buried in, say, user management, which phone home with a document index. Source access or not, it still comes down to trust, of the company and each individual developer.
A true open source project is a very different matter. It's not possible to fool the whole developer community -- a secret like that just won't keep. It might be possible to corrupt individuals, and it's certainly possible for terrorists to join and contribute code. But the bent code is there for all to see, and the folks reading it are developers intimately familiar with the purpose and structure of the system. A trapdoor or a leak is still possible, but it's much more likely to be spotted.
Wired quotes Michael Wendy of the Initiative for Software Choice:
It's not bad for a first try, but the ISC will have to do better than that.
Understanding the Windows EAL4 rating
Microsoft has made a fair amount of noise about the "Common Criteria EAL4" rating recently awarded to Windows 2000. For those of you who are curious about what that actually means, this article by Jonathan Shapiro is well worth reading.
In other words, this certification does not mean a whole lot. People who are interested in the security of their systems still need to look at the systems themselves and draw their own conclusions; there is no magic rating that will take the brain work out of the process.
New vulnerabilities
Canna server: exploitable buffer overrun
| Package(s): | canna | CVE #(s): | CAN-2002-1158 CAN-2002-1159 | ||||||||||||
| Created: | December 10, 2002 | Updated: | October 1, 2003 | ||||||||||||
| Description: | Canna is a kana-kanji conversion server which is necessary for Japanese
language character input.
A buffer overflow bug in the Canna server up to and including version 3.5b2 allows a local user to gain the privileges of the user 'bin' which could lead to further exploits. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2002-1158 to this issue. A lack of validation of requests has been found that affects Canna version 3.6 and earlier. A malicious remote user could exploit this vulnerability to leak information, or cause a denial of service attack. (CAN-2002-1159) | ||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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OpenLDAP2: remote command execution
| Package(s): | OpenLDAP2 | CVE #(s): | CAN-2002-1378 CAN-2002-1379 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | December 6, 2002 | Updated: | February 21, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | OpenLDAP is the Open Source implementation of the Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP) and is used in network environments for distributing
certain information such as X.509 certificates or login information.
The SuSE Security Team reviewed critical parts of that package and found several buffer overflows and other bugs remote attackers could exploit to gain access on systems running vulnerable LDAP servers. In addition to these bugs, various local exploitable bugs within the OpenLDAP2 libraries (openldap2-devel package) have been fixed. Since there is no workaround possible except shutting down the LDAP server, an update is strongly recommended. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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smb2www: arbitrary command execution
| Package(s): | smb2www | CVE #(s): | ||||
| Created: | December 5, 2002 | Updated: | December 11, 2002 | |||
| Description: | Robert Luberda found a security problem in smb2www, a Windows Network client that is accessible through a web browser. This could lead a remote attacker to execute arbitrary programs under the user id www-data on the host where smb2www is running. | |||||
| Alerts: |
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wget:directory traversal bug
| Package(s): | wget | CVE #(s): | CAN-2002-1344 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | December 10, 2002 | Updated: | October 1, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Versions of wget prior to 1.8.2-4 contain a bug that permits a malicious
FTP server to create or overwrite files anywhere on the local file system.
FTP clients must check to see if an FTP server's response to the NLST command includes any directory information along with the list of filenames required by the FTP protocol (RFC 959, section 4.1.3). If the FTP client fails to do so, a malicious FTP server can send filenames beginning with '/' or containing '/../' which can be used to direct a vulnerable FTP client to write files (such as .forward, .rhosts, .shosts, etc.) that can then be used for later attacks against the client machine. See also this Bugtraq article from 1997. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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Updated vulnerabilities
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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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freeswan: Denial of Service
| Package(s): | freeswan | CVE #(s): | ||||
| Created: | December 4, 2002 | Updated: | December 4, 2002 | |||
| Description: | Bindview discovered a problem in several IPSEC implementations that do not properly handle certain very short packets. IPSEC is a set of security extensions to IP which provide authentication and encryption. Debian's FreeS/WAN package contains this vulnerability, which can lead to kernel crashes. | |||||
| Alerts: |
| |||||
Potential remote root exploit in glibc
| Package(s): | glibc | CVE #(s): | CAN-2002-0391 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | August 14, 2002 | Updated: | June 29, 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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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IM: creates temporary files insecurely
| Package(s): | im | CVE #(s): | CAN-2002-1395 | |||||||||
| Created: | December 3, 2002 | Updated: | March 6, 2003 | |||||||||
| Description: | Tatsuya Kinoshita discovered that IM, which contains interface
commands and Perl libraries for E-mail and NetNews, creates temporary
files insecurely.
| |||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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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: |
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kdelibs: Vulnerabilities in KIO subsystem support
| Package(s): | kdelibs | CVE #(s): | CAN-2002-1281 CAN-2002-1282 | ||||||||||||
| Created: | November 22, 2002 | Updated: | March 14, 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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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
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: |
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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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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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: |
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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: |
| |||||
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: |
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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: |
| ||||||||
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: |
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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: |
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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. | |||||||||||||||||
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pine: buffer overflow parsing "From:" addresses
| Package(s): | pine | CVE #(s): | CAN-2002-1320 | |||||||||||||||
| Created: | November 27, 2002 | Updated: | January 3, 2003 | |||||||||||||||
| Description: | A malicious user could send a message with a specially crafted "From:" address and cause a segmentation fault on the client. Pine 4.50 fixes this vulnerability (CAN-2002-1320) and several others. Read the full advisory here. | |||||||||||||||||
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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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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. | |||||||||||||||||
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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 9, 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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. | |||||||||||
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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. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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.
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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. | ||||||||
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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). | |||||||||||||||||
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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. | |||||||||||
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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). | ||||||||||||||
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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. | |||||
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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. | ||||||||||||||
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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." | |||||||||||
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Resources
Sourcefire announces Intrusion Management System
SourceFire has sent out a press release describing its new "Intrusion Management System." "Sourcefire IMS provides users with advanced data management and event correlation capabilities, in addition to its industry leading intrusion detection and enhanced scalability."
/etc/inittab - The Most Overlooked Cracker Haven
The December 5 "Linux Security: Tips, Tricks, and Hackery" newsletter looks at /etc/inittab as a hiding place for cracker back doors.
Linux Advisory Watch
The LinuxSecurity.com Linux Advisory Watch newsletter for December 6 is available.
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet
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