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Brief items

Hardening Linux against buffer overflows

Whenever kernel hacker Ingo Molnar disappears for a while, it is reasonable to expect that he will resurface with some interesting new development. In the past, he has materialized with the TUX in-kernel web server, the O(1) scheduler, and the new kernel threads implementation. His most recent offering, however, has to do with making Linux systems more resilient in the face of buffer overflow vulnerabilities.

The new "Exec Shield" patch (which applies to the 2.4.21 release candidate kernel) takes several steps to fight buffer overflows, including:

  • Engaging in some x86 segmentation magic to minimize the range of addresses where the processor can execute code. This approach is essentially a hack to work around the inconvenient fact that the x86 architecture lacks a page table flag for controlling execute permission. By playing with segments, this patch makes it impossible to execute code on the stack and in as much of the data area as possible. As a result, the execution of exploit code delivered via buffer overflows becomes far more difficult.

  • As much executable code as possible is moved into the lowest part of the virtual address space - below 16MB. Addresses in this range begin with a zero byte, making them hard to create with purely ASCII overflows. Many applications which deal with C strings cannot be overflowed with a string containing NULL bytes. Others, of course, will read any sort of data and will not be affected by this particular change. For applications for which this measure is effective, however (and that set includes most web-based applications), this shift into the "ASCII armor" area will block exploits which work by jumping into library code which might, say, execute a shell.

  • A subsequent release of the patch includes shared library and stack address randomization. These measures make mass exploits harder, since each target process is different.

This approach, note, is different from that used in the recent OpenBSD 3.3 release. OpenBSD does not (yet) provide executable stack protection on the x86 architecture; instead, it relies on detecting buffer overflows with a modified compiler that installs (and checks) "canaries" on the stack. The OpenBSD "W^X" execute permission control will be extended to the x86 architecture in 3.4.

So does this approach bring any real security? Non-executable stack patches have failed to get into the Linux kernel before, since Linus does not believe in them:

In short, anybody who thinks that the non-executable stack gives them any real security is very very much living in a dream world. It may catch a few attacks for old binaries that have security problems, but the basic problem is that the binaries allow you to overwrite their stacks.

The real solution, says Linus, is to fix the applications. That is undoubtedly true, but fixing all of the applications out there (and keeping them fixed) is not an easy task. In the meantime, raising the bar for potential attackers may well be the right thing to do. It would not be surprising to see this patch find its way into the kernels shipped by the major distributors, even if Linus does not accept it into the mainline.

Comments (5 posted)

OpenSSL pursuing FIPS 140-2 cryptographic certification

The Open Source Software Institute is leading an effort to secure National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) FIPS 140-2 level 1 cryptographic certification for OpenSSL. Hewlett-Packard has provided funding to support the certification effort. In addition, Gary Gross, of HP, is serving as OSSI's program manager and technical lead for the FIPS 140-2 certification program. The press release is in PDF format. (Thanks to David A. Wheeler)

Comments (none posted)

New vulnerabilities

epic4: buffer overflows and arbitrary code execution

Package(s):epic4 CVE #(s):
Created:May 2, 2003 Updated:May 22, 2003
Description: Timo Sirainen discovered several problems in EPIC4, a popular client for Internet Relay Chat (IRC). A malicious server could craft special reply strings, triggering the client to write beyond buffer boundaries. This could lead to a denial of service if the client only crashes, but may also lead to executing of arbitrary code under the user id of the chatting user.
Alerts:
Slackware SSA:2003-141-01 2003-05-22
Debian DSA-298-1 2002-03-05

Comments (none posted)

fuzz: symlink vulnerability

Package(s):fuzz CVE #(s):
Created:May 7, 2003 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: The fuzz software stress testing tool has a temporary file vulnerability which can be exploited by a local attacker.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-302-1 2003-05-07

Comments (none posted)

leksbot: improper setuid-root execution

Package(s):leksbot CVE #(s):
Created:May 6, 2003 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: Maurice Massar discovered that, due to a packaging error, the program /usr/bin/KATAXWR was inadvertently installed setuid root. This program was not designed to run setuid, and contained multiple vulnerabilities which could be exploited to gain root privileges.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-299-1 2003-05-06

Comments (none posted)

mod_auth_any: remote exploit

Package(s):mod_auth_any CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0084
Created:May 2, 2003 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: mod_auth_any is a web server module that allows the Apache httpd server to call arbitrary external programs to verify user passwords.

Vulnerabilities have been found in the way mod_auth_any escapes shell arguments when calling external programs. These vulnerabilities allow remote attackers to run arbitrary commands as the user under which the Web server is running.

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:113-01 2002-03-05

Comments (none posted)

openssh: timing attack leads to information disclosure

Package(s):openssh CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0190
Created:May 2, 2003 Updated:November 30, 2004
Description: From the advisory: "During a pen-test we stumbled across a nasty bug in OpenSSH-portable with PAM support enabled (via the --with-pam configure script switch). This bug allows a remote attacker to identify valid users on vulnerable systems, through a simple timing attack. The vulnerability is easy to exploit and may have high severity, if combined with poor password policies and other security problems that allow local privilege escalation."
Alerts:
Ubuntu USN-34-1 2004-11-30
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.035 2003-08-06
Red Hat RHSA-2003:222-01 2003-07-29
Gentoo 200305-02 2003-05-13
Gentoo 200305-01 2002-03-05

Comments (1 posted)

Updated vulnerabilities

apache 2.x: denial of service

Package(s):apache CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0132
Created:April 9, 2003 Updated:May 1, 2003
Description: Apache 2.0.x (for <= 44) have a denial of service vulnerability; Apache 2.0.45 fixes the problem.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:632 2003-04-30
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:050 2003-04-22
Red Hat RHSA-2003:139-01 2003-04-09
Gentoo 200304-01 2003-04-09

Comments (1 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)

balsa: imap code buffer overflow

Package(s):balsa CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0140 CAN-2003-0167
Created:April 30, 2003 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: Balsa, it turns out, suffers from the same buffer overflow found in mutt; see the mutt vulnerability information for details.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-300-1 2003-05-06
Conectiva CLA-2003:635 2003-04-30
Gentoo 200304-10 2003-04-30

Comments (none 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)

BitchX - denial of service

Package(s):BitchX CVE #(s):
Created:February 20, 2003 Updated:May 26, 2003
Description: From this Bugtraq posting:

A denial of service vulnerability exists in BitchX. Sending a malformed RPL_NAMREPLY numeric 353 causes BitchX to segfault. This problem was reported to panasync@efnet#bitchx on Jan 30 2003, as of this writing we are unaware of any patches or workarounds provided by panasync and or any members of #bitchx

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:655 2003-05-26
Slackware ssa:2003-141-02 2003-05-22
Debian DSA-306-1 2003-05-19
Gentoo 200302-11 2003-02-20

Comments (none posted)

Bugzilla: several vulnerabilities.

Package(s):bugzilla CVE #(s):
Created:April 30, 2003 Updated:May 21, 2003
Description: The Bugzilla bug tracking system has a new set of vulnerabilities which can lead to cross-site scripting and symlink attacks. Versions 2.16.3 and 2.17.4 contain the necessary fixes; see this advisory for the details.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:653 2003-05-21

Comments (none posted)

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)

See also http://canna.sourceforge.jp/sec/Canna-2002-01.txt

CAN-2002-1158
CAN-2002-1159

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-005.0 2003-01-21
Debian DSA-224-1 2002-01-08
Gentoo 200212-8 2002-12-20
Red Hat RHSA-2002:246-18 2002-12-04

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)

ethereal - format string vulnerability

Package(s):ethereal CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0081
Created:March 10, 2003 Updated:June 12, 2003
Description: The SOCKS dissector in Ethereal 0.9.9 is susceptible to a format string overflow. This vulnerability has been present in Ethereal since the SOCKS dissector was introduced in version 0.8.7. It was discovered by Georgi Guninski. Additionally, the NTLMSSP code is susceptible to a heap overflow. All users of Ethereal 0.9.9 and below are encouraged to upgrade. See the full advisory for additional information.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:051 2003-03-24
Red Hat RHSA-2003:076-01 2003-04-23
Conectiva CLA-2003:627 2003-04-16
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:019 2003-03-21
Debian DSA-258-1 2003-03-10
Gentoo 200303-10 2003-03-09

Comments (none posted)

evolution: multiple vulnerabilities

Package(s):Evolution CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0128 CAN-2003-0129 CAN-2003-0130
Created:March 21, 2003 Updated:May 14, 2003
Description: Multiple vulnerabilities have been found in Ximian's Evolution Mail User Agent, according to this CoreLabs advisory. "Three vulnerabilities were found that could lead to various forms of exploitation ranging from denying to users the ability to read email, provoke system unstability, bypassing security context checks for email content and possibly execution of arbitrary commands on vulnerable systems."

Ximian Evolution is a personal and workgroup information management solution for Linux and UNIX-based systems. The software integrates email, calendaring, meeting scheduling, contact management, and task lists, in one application.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:648 2003-05-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:045 2003-04-15
Yellow Dog YDU-20030409-2 2003-04-09
Red Hat RHSA-2003:108-03 2003-03-31
Red Hat RHSA-2003:108-02 2003-03-24
Gentoo 200303-18 2003-03-21
Red Hat RHSA-2003:108-01 2003-03-21

Comments (1 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)

fetchmail: buffer overflow

Package(s):fetchmail CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1365
Created:December 17, 2002 Updated:October 20, 2003
Description: Versions of fetchmail prior to 6.2.0 have (yet another) buffer overflow vulnerability which can be exploited remotely via a suitably crafted message. See this advisory for details.
Alerts:
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-023-01 2003-10-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:011 2003-01-27
EnGarde ESA-20030127-002 2003-01-27
SCO Group CSSA-2003-001.0 2003-01-09
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:001 2003-01-02
Debian DSA-216-1 2002-12-24
Red Hat RHSA-2002:293-09 2002-12-17
Conectiva CLA-2002:554 2002-12-16

Comments (3 posted)

file - memory allocation problem, stack overflow

Package(s):file CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0102
Created:March 4, 2003 Updated:June 4, 2003
Description: Jeff Johnson found a memory allocation problem and David Endler found a stack overflow corruption problem in the file "Automatic File Content Type Recognition Tool" version 3.41. Nalin Dahyabhai improved ELF section and program header handling in file version 3.40. The folks at OpenPKG believe that file versions without those modifications are vulnerable to memory allocation and stack overflow problems which put security at risk.
Alerts:
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-012-01 2003-06-03
SCO Group CSSA-2003-018.0 2003-04-28
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:030-1 2003-04-17
Conectiva CLA-2003:617 2003-04-04
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:017 2003-03-21
Debian DSA-260-1 2003-03-13
Gentoo 200303-8 2003-03-08
EnGarde ESA-20030307-008 2003-03-07
Red Hat RHSA-2003:086-07 2003-03-07
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:030 2003-03-06
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.017 2003-03-04

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)

glibc: integer overflow in the xdrmem_getbytes() function

Package(s):glibc krb5 dietlibc CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0028
Created:March 21, 2003 Updated:May 27, 2003
Description: An integer overflow in the xdrmem_getbytes() function, and possibly other functions, of XDR (external data representation) libraries derived from SunRPC, including libnsl, libc, and glibc, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via certain integer values in length fields See CAN-2003-0028 and CERT advisory CA-2003-10 for more information.
Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:027 2003-05-26
Slackware ssa:2003-141-03 2003-05-22
Conectiva CLA-2003:639 2003-05-05
Conectiva CLA-2003:633 2003-04-30
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-009-01 2003-04-14
Debian DSA-282-1 2003-04-09
Gentoo 200303-29 2003-03-31
Debian DSA-272-1 2003-03-28
Trustix 2003-0014 2003-03-26
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:037 2003-03-25
Gentoo 200303-22 2003-03-25
Debian DSA-266-1 2003-03-17
Red Hat RHSA-2003:089-00 2003-03-19
Sorcerer SORCERER2003-03-20-2 2003-03-20
Sorcerer SORCERER2003-03-20-1 2003-03-20
EnGarde ESA-20030321-010 2003-03-21
SCO Group CSSA-2003-013.0 2003-03-19

Comments (3 posted)

gtkhtml: malformed messages cause crash

Package(s):gtkhtml CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0133 CAN-2003-0541
Created:April 14, 2003 Updated:April 18, 2005
Description: GtkHTML is the HTML rendering widget used by the Evolution mail reader.

GtkHTML supplied with versions of Evolution prior to 1.2.4 contain a bug when handling HTML messages. Alan Cox discovered that certain malformed messages could cause the Evolution mail component to crash.

Alerts:
Debian DSA-710-1 2005-04-18
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:093 2003-09-18
Conectiva CLA-2003:737 2003-09-12
Red Hat RHSA-2003:264-01 2003-09-09
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:046 2003-04-15
Red Hat RHSA-2003:126-01 2003-04-14

Comments (none posted)

IMP - SQL injection vulnerability

Package(s):imp CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0025
Created:January 15, 2003 Updated:July 8, 2003
Description: The IMP IMAP server, versions 2.2.8 and prior, is vulnerable to SQL injection; see this advisory for details. Version 3.x is not vulnerable to this problem.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:690 2003-07-08
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0008 2003-02-18
Debian DSA-229-2 2003-01-15

Comments (1 posted)

kde: arbitrary code execution

Package(s):kde CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0204
Created:April 10, 2003 Updated:June 30, 2003
Description: The KDE Security team has issued an advisory on a vulnerability present in all versions of KDE that allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands under your account. KDE 3.0.5b and KDE 3.1.1a have been released to address this problem. For KDE 2.2.2 patches to the KDE 2.2.2 sources have been made available.

KDE uses Ghostscript software for processing of PostScript (PS) and PDF files in a way that allows for the execution of arbitrary commands that can be contained in such files.

An attacker can prepare a malicious PostScript or PDF file which will provide the attacker with access to the victim's account and privileges when the victim opens this malicious file for viewing or when the victim browses a directory containing such malicious file and has file previews enabled.

An attacker can provide malicious files remotely to a victim in an e-mail, as part of a webpage, via an ftp server and possible other means.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:668 2003-06-30
Red Hat RHSA-2003:002-01 2003-05-12
Debian DSA-296-1 2003-04-30
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:049-1 2003-04-24
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0026 2003-04-24
Debian DSA-293-1 2003-04-23
Slackware sl-1050682024 2003-04-18
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:049 2003-04-17
Sorcerer SORCERER2003-04-12 2003-04-12
Debian DSA-284-1 2003-04-12
Gentoo 200304-05 2003-04-11
Gentoo 200304-04 2003-04-10

Comments (none posted)

kerberos - cryptographic weakness

Package(s):kerberos, heimdal, openafs CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0138 CAN-2003-0139
Created:March 26, 2003 Updated:May 27, 2003
Description: Version 4 of the Kerberos protocol contains a cryptographic weakness which enables a chosen-plaintext attack. A suitably equipped attacker can impersonate any principal in the realm. Another weakness allows the creation of false Kerberos tickets. Given the weaknesses in the cryptography, cross-realm authentication cannot be performed in a secure way.

OpenAFS kaserver implements version 4 of the Kerberos protocol, and therefore is also vulnerable.

Alerts:
Gentoo 200305-09 2003-05-27
Debian DSA-269-2 2003-04-09
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-007-01 2003-04-07
Red Hat RHSA-2003:091-01 2003-04-02
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:043 2003-04-01
Gentoo 200303-28 2003-03-31
Gentoo 200303-26 2003-03-30
Debian DSA-273-1 2003-03-28
Red Hat RHSA-2003:051-01 2003-03-26
Debian DSA-269-1 2003-03-26

Comments (none posted)

kernel - ptrace-related vulnerability

Package(s):kernel CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0127
Created:March 17, 2003 Updated:June 30, 2003
Description: Versions 2.2.x and 2.4.x of the Linux kernel contain a vulnerability in ptrace() which may be exploited by a local user to obtain root access. This announcement contains the details and a patch for 2.4.20. For 2.2 users, 2.2.25 has been released which contains the fix.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-336-2 2003-06-29
Debian DSA-336-1 2003-06-29
Debian DSA-332-1 2003-06-27
Red Hat RHSA-2003:098-03 2003-06-02
SCO Group CSSA-2003-020.0 2003-05-09
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:038-1 2003-04-09
Red Hat RHSA-2003:135-00 2003-04-08
Conectiva CLA-2003:618 2003-04-07
Debian DSA-276-1 2003-04-03
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:039 2003-03-27
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:038 2003-03-27
Debian DSA-270-1 2003-03-27
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:021 2003-03-25
Gentoo 200303-17 2003-03-21
Sorcerer SORCERER2003-03-19 2003-03-20
Red Hat RHSA-2003:088-01 2003-03-20
EnGarde ESA-20030318-009 2003-03-18
Trustix 2003-0007 2003-03-18
Red Hat RHSA-2003:098-00 2003-03-17

Comments (none posted)

kernel-utils: setuid vulnerability

Package(s):kernel-utils CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0019
Created:February 7, 2003 Updated:January 21, 2005
Description: The kernel-utils package contains several utilities that can be used to control the kernel or machine hardware. In Red Hat Linux 8.0 this package contains user mode linux (UML) utilities.

The uml_net utility in kernel-utils packages with Red Hat Linux 8.0 was incorrectly shipped setuid root. This could allow local users to control certain network interfaces, add and remove arp entries and routes, and put interfaces in and out of promiscuous mode.

All users of the kernel-utils package should update to these packages that contain a version of uml_net that is not setuid root.

Alternatively, as a work-around to this vulnerability issue the following command as root:

chmod -s /usr/bin/uml_net

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:056-08 2003-02-07

Comments (none posted)

libpng, libpng3: buffer overflow

Package(s):libpng, libpng3 CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1363
Created:December 19, 2002 Updated:July 14, 2004
Description: Glenn Randers-Pehrson discovered a problem in connection with 16-bit samples from libpng, an interface for reading and writing PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format files. The starting offsets for the loops are calculated incorrectly which causes a buffer overrun beyond the beginning of the row buffer.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200407-06 2004-07-08
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.030 2004-07-06
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:063 2004-06-29
Whitebox WBSA-2004:249-01 2004-06-21
Fedora FEDORA-2004-176 2004-06-18
Fedora FEDORA-2004-174 2004-06-18
Fedora FEDORA-2004-175 2004-06-18
Fedora FEDORA-2004-173 2004-06-18
Red Hat RHSA-2004:249-01 2004-06-18
Conectiva CLA-2003:564 2003-01-23
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:008 2003-01-20
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.001 2003-01-15
Yellow Dog YDU-20030114-2 2002-01-14
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0004 2003-01-14
Red Hat RHSA-2003:006-06 2003-01-09
Debian DSA-213-1 2002-12-19

Comments (none posted)

LPRng: insecure temporary file

Package(s):LPRng CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0136
Created:April 14, 2003 Updated:June 16, 2003
Description: Karol Lewandowski discovered that psbanner, a printer filter that creates a PostScript format banner and is part of LPRng, insecurely creates a temporary file for debugging purpose when it is configured as filter. The program does not check whether this file already exists or is linked to another place writes its current environment and called arguments to the file unconditionally with the user id daemon.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200306-04 2003-06-14
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-013-01 2003-06-04
Yellow Dog YDU-20030602-5 2003-06-02
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:060 2003-05-21
Red Hat RHSA-2003:142-01 2003-04-24
Debian DSA-285-1 2003-04-14

Comments (none posted)

lprold - buffer overflow in lprm

Package(s):lprold lpd CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0144
Created:March 13, 2003 Updated:May 28, 2003
Description: The lprm command of the printing package lprold contains a buffer overflow. This buffer overflow can be exploited by a local user, if the printer system is set up correctly, to gain root privileges.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:059 2003-05-21
Debian DSA-267-2 2003-04-15
Debian DSA-275-1 2003-04-02
Debian DSA-267-1 2003-03-24
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0014 2003-03-13

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)

man - code execution vulnerability

Package(s):man CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0124
Created:March 19, 2003 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: Versions of man prior to 1.51 contain a code execution vulnerability which can be exploited by a carefully crafted man file. See this advisory for the details.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:054 2003-05-06
Red Hat RHSA-2003:133-01 2001-03-05
Conectiva CLA-2003:620 2003-04-07
Gentoo 200303-13 2003-03-18

Comments (none posted)

mgetty spool permission

Package(s):mgetty CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1391 CAN-2002-1392
Created:April 8, 2003 Updated:May 13, 2003
Description: mgetty is a getty replacement for use with data and fax modems.

mgetty can be configured to run an external program to decide whether or not to answer an incoming call based on Caller ID information. Unpatched versions of mgetty prior to 1.1.29 would overflow an internal buffer if the caller name reported by the modem was too long.

Additionally, the faxspool script supplied with versions of mgetty prior to 1.1.29 used a simple permissions scheme to allow or deny fax transmission privileges. This scheme was easily circumvented because the spooling directory used for outgoing faxes was world-writable.

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-021.0 2003-05-13
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:053 2003-05-06
Gentoo 200304-09 2003-04-28
Red Hat RHSA-2003:036-01 2003-04-08

Comments (none posted)

mime-support: insecure temporary file creation

Package(s):mime-support CVE #(s):
Created:April 22, 2003 Updated:April 30, 2003
Description: Colin Phipps discovered several problems in mime-support, that contains support programs for the MIME control files 'mime.types' and 'mailcap'. When a temporary file is to be used it is created insecurely, allowing an attacker to overwrite arbitrary under the user id of the person executing run-mailcap, most probably root. Additionally the program did not properly escape shell escape characters when executing a command. This is unlikely to be exploitable, though.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-292-3 2003-04-30
Debian DSA-292-2 2003-04-23
Debian DSA-292-1 2003-04-22

Comments (none posted)

Monkey HTTPd Remote Buffer Overflow

Package(s):monkeyd CVE #(s):
Created:April 28, 2003 Updated:April 30, 2003
Description: A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in Monkey's handling of forms submitted with the POST request method. The unchecked buffer lies in the PostMethod() procedure. The advisory contains more information.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200304-07 2003-04-28

Comments (none posted)

mysql - configuration file vulnerability

Package(s):mysql mysqld CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0150
Created:March 18, 2003 Updated:May 16, 2003
Description: According to a report on BugTraq, a vulnerability exists in version 3.23.55 and earlier versions of the MySQL server. If the MySQL server is launched by root, as it is often done by system startup scripts, any database users with the "FILE" privilege can write a configuration file (usually my.cnf) that causes the MySQL server to run under an arbitrary user id, including the user id of the super-user, on the next restart.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-303-1 2003-05-15
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:057 2003-05-14
Red Hat RHSA-2003:093-02 2002-03-05
Red Hat RHSA-2003:093-01 2003-04-29
EnGarde ESA-20030324-012 2003-03-24
Gentoo 200303-14 2003-03-18
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.022 2003-03-18
Trustix 2003-0009 2003-03-18

Comments (none posted)

nethack: buffer overflow

Package(s):nethack, slashem, falconseye CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0358 CAN-2003-0359
Created:February 18, 2003 Updated:July 15, 2003
Description: Overflowing a buffer in nethack may lead to privilege escalation to games uid.

Read the the full advisory for the details.

Note that falconseye does not contain the file permission error CAN-2003-0359 which affected some other nethack packages.

Alerts:
Debian DSA-350-1 2003-07-15
Debian DSA-316-3 2003-06-17
Debian DSA-316-2 2003-06-11
Debian DSA-316-1 2003-06-11
Gentoo 200302-08 2003-02-18

Comments (none posted)

NetPBM: math overflow errors

Package(s):NetPBM CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0146
Created:March 17, 2003 Updated:May 27, 2003
Description: Al Viro and Alan Cox discovered several maths overflow errors in NetPBM, a set of graphics conversion tools. These programs are not installed setuid root but are often installed to prepare data for processing. These vulnerabilities may allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:656 2003-05-27
Red Hat RHSA-2003:060-01 2003-04-03
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:036 2003-03-25
Debian DSA-263-1 2003-03-17

Comments (none posted)

netscape-flash: buffer overflow

Package(s):netscape-flash CVE #(s):
Created:March 10, 2003 Updated:June 20, 2003
Description: Potentially exploitable buffer overflows exist in the Macromedia Flash Player. The full advisory is here. "The cumulative security patch is available today and addresses the potential for exploits surrounding buffer overflows (read/write) and sandbox integrity within the player, which might allow malicious users to gain access to a user's computer. The possibility of running native code on a users machine is a theoretical exploit, and extremely difficult to execute in practice. There are no known examples of running such native code from Macromedia Flash movies; however, even though this issue is difficult and theoretical in nature only, we are encouraging users to upgrade."
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:026-01 2003-06-20
Gentoo 200303-9 2003-03-09

Comments (none posted)

net-snmp: denial of service vulnerability

Package(s):net-snmp CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1170
Created:December 17, 2002 Updated:November 7, 2003
Description: The SNMP daemon included in the Net-SNMP package versions 5.0.1 through 5.0.4 can be caused to crash if it is sent a specially crafted packet.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:778 2003-11-07
Red Hat RHSA-2002:228-11 2002-12-17

Comments (none posted)

openssl: local and remote extraction of RSA private key

Package(s):openssl, apache, mod_ssl CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0147
Created:March 18, 2003 Updated:May 22, 2003
Description: David Brumley and Dan Boneh of Stanford University have researched and documented a timing attack on OpenSSL which allows local and remote attackers to extract the RSA private key of a server. The OpenSSL RSA implementation is generally vulnerable to these type of attacks unless RSA blinding has been turned on. See this paper (pdf format) for additional details.

Typically, RSA blinding is not enabled by OpenSSL based applications, mainly because it is not obvious how to do so when using OpenSSL to provide SSL/TLS. This problem affects mostly all applications using OpenSSL and have to be rebuilded against the fixed OpenSSL version (where RSA blinding is now enabled by default) or have to enable RSA blinding explicitly their own.

The performance impact of RSA blinding appears to be small (a few percent only) and the RSA functionality is still fully compatible. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project assigned the id CAN-2003-0147 to the problem.

Alerts:
Slackware ssa:2003-141-05 2003-05-22
Debian DSA-288-1 2003-04-17
Conectiva CLA-2003:625 2003-04-10
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:024 2003-04-04
Red Hat RHSA-2003:101-01 2003-04-01
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-001-01 2003-03-26
Trustix 2003-0013 2003-03-26
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:035 2003-03-25
Gentoo 200303-24 2003-03-25
Gentoo 200303-23 2003-03-25
Gentoo 200303-20 2003-03-24
SCO Group CSSA-2003-014.0 2003-03-21
Sorcerer SORCERER2003-03-21-0 2003-03-21
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.026 2003-03-20
EnGarde ESA-20030320-010 2003-03-20
Gentoo 200303-15 2003-03-20
Trustix 2003-0010 2003-03-18
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.020 2003-03-18
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.019 2003-03-18

Comments (none posted)

pam_xauth: root exploit

Package(s):pam_xauth CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1160
Created:February 13, 2003 Updated:July 10, 2003
Description: The pam_xauth module is used to forward xauth information from user to user in applications such as 'su'.

Andreas Beck discovered that versions of pam_xauth supplied with Red Hat Linux since version 7.1 would forward authorization information from the root account to unprivileged users. This could be used by a local attacker to gain access to an administrator's X session. In order to exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would have to get the administrator, as root, to use su to the account belonging to the attacker.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:693 2003-07-10
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:017-1 2003-04-28
Red Hat RHSA-2003:035-10 2003-02-12

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)

PostgreSQL - more buffer overflows

Package(s):postgresql CVE #(s):
Created:February 12, 2003 Updated:November 7, 2003
Description: A new set of buffer overflows has been discovered in PostgreSQL 7.2.2; they affect the circle_poly(), path_encode(), and path_addr() functions. Exploiting these overflows requires that the attacker first obtain a connection to the PostgreSQL server.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-397-1 2003-11-07
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-005-01 2003-04-08
Trustix 2003-0004 2003-02-20
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:062-1 2003-02-11

Comments (1 posted)

PoPTop: remotely exploitable buffer overflow

Package(s):pptpd CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0213
Created:April 28, 2003 Updated:June 6, 2003
Description: The PoPToP PPTP server contains a remotely exploitable buffer overflow; read the full advisory for more information.
Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:029 2003-06-06
Debian DSA-295-1 2003-04-30
Gentoo 200304-08 2003-04-28

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: remotely-exploitable buffer overrun

Package(s):samba CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0201 CAN-2003-0196
Created:April 7, 2003 Updated:May 2, 2003
Description: Digital Defense Inc. has sent out an advisory describing another remotely-exploitable buffer overrun in the Samba server; all versions through 2.2.8 or 2.0.10 (or Samba-TNG 0.3.2) are vulnerable. The Samba team has released Samba 2.2.8a with a fix for the problem; there is also a patch available for the 2.0 series. An exploit is said to be circulating already, so applying patches quickly would be a good idea.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-017.0 2002-03-05
Yellow Dog YDU-20030409-3 2003-04-09
Red Hat RHSA-2003:137-02 2003-04-09
Gentoo 200304-02 2003-04-09
Conectiva CLA-2003:624 2003-04-08
Slackware sl-1049831915 2003-04-08
Sorcerer SORCERER2003-04-08 2003-04-08
Trustix 2003-0019 2003-04-07
Red Hat RHSA-2003:137-01 2003-04-08
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:025 2003-04-07
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-006-01 2003-04-07
Debian DSA-280-1 2003-04-07
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:044 2003-04-07
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.028 2003-04-07

Comments (none posted)

sendmail - buffer overrun

Package(s):sendmail CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0161
Created:March 31, 2003 Updated:April 30, 2003
Description: There is yet another buffer overrun in sendmail; this one was discovered by Michal Zalewski. From the CERT Advisory: "There is a vulnerability in sendmail that can be exploited to cause a denial-of-service condition and could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the sendmail daemon, typically root." Sendmail 8.12.9 was released with a fix for the problem.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:614 2003-04-04
Debian DSA-290-1 2003-04-17
Yellow Dog YDU-20030409-1 2003-04-09
Conectiva CLA-2003:614 2003-04-04
Debian DSA-278-2 2003-04-04
Debian DSA-278-1 2003-04-04
SCO Group CSSA-2003-016.0 2003-04-03
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-002-01 2003-03-31
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:042 2003-04-01
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:023 2003-04-01
Red Hat RHSA-2003:120-01 2003-03-31
Gentoo 200303-27 2003-03-31
Slackware sl-1049038109 2003-03-30
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.027 2003-03-30

Comments (none posted)

slocate - buffer overflow

Package(s):slocate CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0056
Created:February 5, 2003 Updated:May 8, 2003
Description: version 2.6 (at least) of slocate contains a buffer overflow vulnerability which could lead to a local exploit; see this advisory for the details.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:643 2003-05-08
SCO Group CSSA-2003-009.0 2003-03-06
Debian DSA-252-1 2003-02-21
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:015 2003-02-05
Gentoo 200302-02 2003-02-02

Comments (none posted)

snort - multiple vulnerabilities

Package(s):snort CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0029 CAN-2003-0033
Created:April 23, 2003 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: Versions of the snort intrusion detection system through 2.0-rc1 contain buffer and heap overflow vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution. Sites running snort are advised to upgrade to 2.0.0 as soon as possible; see this CERT advisory for more information.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:642 2003-05-06
Debian DSA-297-1 2001-03-05
EnGarde ESA-20030430-013 2003-04-30
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:052 2003-04-28
Gentoo 200304-06 2003-04-28

Comments (none posted)

squirrelmail: more cross-site scripting vulnerabilities

Package(s):squirrelmail CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0160
Created:April 24, 2003 Updated:June 4, 2003
Description: SquirrelMail is a webmail package written in PHP. Multiple vulnerabilities have been found which affect versions of SquirrelMail shipped with Red Hat Linux 8.0 and Red Hat Linux 9.

Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in SquirrelMail version 1.2.10 and earlier allow remote attackers to execute script as other Web users via mailbox displays, message displays, or search results displays. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2003-0160 to these issues.

All users are advised to upgrade to these errata packages containing SquirrelMail version 1.2.11, which is not vulnerable to these issues.

Alerts:
Yellow Dog YDU-20030602-2 2003-06-02
Red Hat RHSA-2003:112-01 2003-04-24

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 - infinite loop

Package(s):tcpdump CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0108
Created:February 28, 2003 Updated:May 1, 2003
Description: Andrew Griffiths and iDEFENSE Labs discovered a problem in tcpdump, a powerful tool for network monitoring and data acquisition. An attacker is able to send a specially crafted network packet which causes tcpdump to enter an infinite loop.

In addition to the above problem the tcpdump developers discovered a potential infinite loop when parsing malformed BGP packets. They also discovered a buffer overflow that can be exploited with certain malformed NFS packets.

Alerts:
EnGarde ESA-20030430-014 2003-04-30
Red Hat RHSA-2003:032-01 2003-04-23
Conectiva CLA-2003:629 2003-04-22
Debian DSA-261-1 2003-03-14
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0015 2003-03-13
Gentoo 200303-5 2003-03-05
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.014 2003-03-04
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:027 2003-03-03
Debian DSA-255-1 2003-02-27

Comments (none posted)

TCP/IP: inconsistent flag handling

Package(s):TCP/IP CVE #(s):
Created:May 5, 2003 Updated:May 20, 2003
Description: Various vendors' TCP/IP implementations handle packets containing unusual flag combinations in different ways, which may lead to a violation of implicit or explicit security policies.

See CERT VU#464113 and this BugTraq post for more information.

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-019.0 2003-05-05

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)

typespeed: buffer overflow

Package(s):typespeed CVE #(s):
Created:January 1, 2003 Updated:June 17, 2003
Description: A problem has been discovered in the typespeed, a game that lets you measure your typematic speed. By overflowing a buffer a local attacker could execute arbitrary commands under the group id games.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-322-1 2003-06-16
Debian DSA-217-1 2002-12-27

Comments (none posted)

vim - modeline vulnerability

Package(s):vim CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1377
Created:January 16, 2003 Updated:February 10, 2004
Description: VIM allows a user to set the modeline differently for each edited text file by placing special comments in the files. Georgi Guninski found that these comments can be carefully crafted in order to call external programs. This could allow an attacker to create a text file such that when it is opened arbitrary commands are executed.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2004:812 2004-02-10
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:012 2003-02-03
Yellow Dog YDU-20030127-3 2003-01-27
Gentoo 200301-13 2003-01-22
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.003 2003-01-21
Red Hat RHSA-2002:297-17 2003-01-15

Comments (4 posted)

vixie-cron: Local vulnerability

Package(s):vixie-cron CVE #(s):CVE-2001-0559
Created:April 17, 2003 Updated:October 3, 2003
Description: From the ISS advisory: "Vixie Cron is a scheduling daemon that ships with several Linux distributions. Vixie Cron version 3.0pl1 could allow a local attacker to gain root privileges. Crontab fails to properly drop privileges in certain cases after a crontab modification operation. A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability to gain root privileges on the system since crontab is installed setuid root."

Note: this vulnerability is dated May 07 2001, and was first mentioned in LWN on the May 10, 2001 security page.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:758 2003-10-03
Conectiva CLA-2003:757 2003-10-03
Conectiva CLA-2003:628 2003-04-17

Comments (none posted)

vnc - replay and cookie vulnerabilities

Package(s):vnc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1336 CAN-2002-1511
Created:February 21, 2003 Updated:May 5, 2003
Description: VNC is a tool for providing a remote graphical user interface. Two vulnerabilities have been found in versions of VNC shipped by Red Hat.

The VNC server acts as an X server, but the script for starting it generates an MIT X cookie (which is used for X authentication) without using a strong enough random number generator. This could allow an attacker to be able to more easily guess the authentication cookie.

The VNC DES authentication scheme is implemented using a challenge-response architecture, producing a random and different challenge for each authentication attempt. A bug in the function for generating the random challenge caused the random seed to get reset to the current time on every authentication attempt. Therefore, two authentication attempts within the same second could receive the same challenge. An eavesdropper could exploit this vulnerability by replaying the response, thereby gaining authentication.

All users of VNC are advised to upgrade to these erratum packages, which contain patches to correct these issues.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:640 2003-05-05
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:022 2003-02-24
Gentoo 200302-16 2003-02-24
Gentoo 200302-15 2003-02-24
Red Hat RHSA-2003:041-12 2003-02-20

Comments (none posted)

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.

CAN-2002-1344

Alerts:
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-011-01 2003-06-03
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.007 2003-01-23
SCO Group CSSA-2003-003.0 2003-01-16
Gentoo 200212-7 2002-12-20
Trustix 2002-0089 2002-12-19
Conectiva CLA-2002:552 2002-12-13
Debian DSA-209-1 2002-12-12
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:086 2002-12-11
Red Hat RHSA-2002:229-10 2002-12-04

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)

Resources

The top 75 security tools

Insecure.org has put together a list of the top 75 security tools as determined by a poll of nmap users. The list starts out with the obvious entries (nessus, ethereal, snort), but there's sure to be something new there for just about anybody.

Comments (none posted)

Linux Security Week

The May 5 issue of the Linux Security Week newsletter from LinuxSecurity.com is available.

Full Story (comments: none)

Events

HiverCon 2003 call for papers

HiverCon 2003 is happening November 6 and 7 in Dublin; the call for papers has gone out, with submissions due by the beginning of August.

Full Story (comments: none)

ToorCon 2003 call for papers

The call for papers for ToorCon 2003 (September 26 to 28, San Diego) has gone out; submissions are due by August 17.

Full Story (comments: none)

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