Security

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

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

Updating as soon as practical is a good idea.

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

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).

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.

The gzexe script has a similar vulnerability which was patched in an earlier release but inadvertently reverted.

Hangul Terminal provides an escape sequence for reporting the current window title, which essentially takes the current title and places it directly on the command line. An attacker can craft an escape sequence that sets the window title of a victim using Hangul Terminal to an arbitrary command and then report it to the command line. Since it is not possible to embed a carriage return into the window title the attacker would then have to convince the victim to press Enter for it to process the title as a command, although the attacker could craft other escape sequences that might convince the victim to do so.

In addition, it is possible to lock up Hangul Terminal before version 2.0.5 by sending an invalid DEC UDK escape sequence.

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.

• The ioperm() system call doesn't perform proper checking, allowing a local user to manipulate arbitrary I/O ports.

• The networking code contains a remotely exploitable denial of service condition; see the May 24 Security Page for details.

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

CAN-2002-1405

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.

The function str_repeat(string input, int multiplier) returns input repeated multiplier times. The implementation of this function suffers from a simple integer overflow caused by a very long second argument and could allow a local/remote attacker in the worst case to gain control over the web server. Read the full advisory.

The function array_pad(array input, int pad_size, mixed pad_value) returns a copy of the input padded to size specified by pad_size with pad_value. Unfortunately the implementation of this function suffers from an integer overflow caused by a very long second argument and could allow a local/remote attacker in the worst case to gain control over the web server. Read the full advisory.

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.

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.

CAN-2002-0985
CAN-2002-0986

CAN-2002-1119

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

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