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Security
Security news
Spam blocking with greylisting
A certain amount of attention has recently been given to a spam-blocking method called greylisting. A look at the description of the technique shows that it does not, actually, have much in the new way of ideas. Greylisting might, however, become a useful part of the antispam arsenal at some sites.The core idea of the greylisting technique has been around for a while. It relies on the fact most spammers do not bother to track and retry deliveries which are declined by the receiving system with a temporary failure status. Real mail systems will retry the message later on, until they run out of patience. Spammers just forget about it and move on. So an effective way of blocking a large percentage of incoming spam is to simply refuse mail from new sources with a temporary failure on the first delivery attempt. Real mail will eventually show up again, and be delivered with a small delay. Most spam will never return.
The greylisting technique uses a slightly finer-grained approach. It creates a three-entry tuple out of the originating address, the sender, and the recipient of the message. If the tuple is new, the mail is refused for a configurable period of time. The use of the three-way tuple helps prevent spam from slipping in by using false sender addresses.
The obvious workaround, from a spammer's point of view, is to add retrying for temporary failures to their code. Given the desire of the spam industry to pollute our mailboxes regardless of how hard we try to prevent that, the implementation of temporary failure retrying is only a matter of time. Of course, mail sent through open relays is generally retried anyway, so widespread use of greylisting could result in more use of open relays, and, perhaps, more attempts to compromise systems to turn them into unwilling relays.
As the author describes it, greylisting is meant to be used in conjunction with other spam-blocking techniques, especially blackhole lists. The hope is that, by the time the temporary failure interval has ended for a particular spam source, that source will have found its way into the blacklists and the message can be blocked permanently. This combination could, indeed, prove hard for the spammers to get around.
New vulnerabilities
eldav: insecure temporary file
| Package(s): | eldav | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0438 | |||
| Created: | June 19, 2003 | Updated: | June 24, 2003 | |||
| Description: | eldav, a WebDAV client for Emacs, creates temporary files without taking appropriate security precautions. This vulnerability could be exploited by a local user to create or overwrite files with the privileges of the user running emacs and eldav. | |||||
| Alerts: |
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ethereal: security problems in Ethereal 0.9.12
| Package(s): | ethereal | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0428 CAN-2003-0429 CAN-2003-0431 CAN-2003-0432 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | June 23, 2003 | Updated: | November 10, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Several security problems have been found in Ethereal 0.9.12. "It may be possible to make Ethereal crash or run arbitrary code by injecting a purposefully malformed packet onto the wire, or by convincing someone to read a malformed packet trace file." | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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orville-write: buffer overflows
| Package(s): | orville-write | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0441 | |||
| Created: | June 19, 2003 | Updated: | June 24, 2003 | |||
| Description: | Orville Write, a replacement for the standard write(1) command, contains a number of buffer overflows. These could be exploited to gain either gid tty or root privileges, depending on the configuration selected when the package is installed. | |||||
| Alerts: |
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osh: buffer overflows
| Package(s): | osh | CVE #(s): | ||||
| Created: | June 20, 2003 | Updated: | June 24, 2003 | |||
| Description: | Steve Kemp discovered that osh, a shell intended to restrict the actions of the user, contains two buffer overflows, in processing environment variables and file redirections. These vulnerabilities could be used to execute arbitrary code, overriding any restrictions placed on the shell. | |||||
| Alerts: |
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webfs: buffer overflow
| Package(s): | webfs | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0445 | |||
| Created: | June 20, 2003 | Updated: | June 24, 2003 | |||
| Description: | webfs, a lightweight HTTP server for static content, contains a buffer overflow whereby a long Request-URI in an HTTP request could cause arbitrary code to be executed. | |||||
| Alerts: |
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xbl: buffer overflows
| Package(s): | xbl | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0451 CAN-2003-0535 | ||||||
| Created: | June 20, 2003 | Updated: | July 9, 2003 | ||||||
| Description: | Steve Kemp discovered several buffer overflows in xbl, a game, which
can be triggered by long command line arguments. This vulnerability
could be exploited by a local attacker to gain gid 'games'. This has been assigned CVE #
CAN-2003-0451.
Another buffer overflow was discovered in xbl which could also be exploited by a local attacker to gain gid 'games'. This has been assigned CVE # CAN-2003-0535. | ||||||||
| Alerts: |
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xterm: command execution and denial of service
| Package(s): | XFree86 xterm | CVE #(s): | CAN-2001-1409 CAN-2002-1472 CAN-2002-0164 CAN-2003-0063 CAN-2003-0071 | ||||||||||||
| Created: | June 25, 2003 | Updated: | July 2, 2003 | ||||||||||||
| Description: | A couple of new vulnerabilities have been found in the xterm application shipped with XFree86. There is yet another "execute arbitrary commands by setting the window title" vulnerability, along with a bug which can allow an attacker to lock up an exterm window. | ||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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ypserv: denial of service
| Package(s): | ypserv | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0251 | ||||||||||||
| Created: | June 25, 2003 | Updated: | July 11, 2003 | ||||||||||||
| Description: | From the Red Hat advisory: "A vulnerability has been discovered in the ypserv NIS server prior to version 2.7. If a malicious client queries ypserv via TCP and subsequently ignores the server's response, ypserv will block attempting to send the reply. This results in ypserv failing to respond to other client requests." The fix is up upgrade to version 2.8.0. | ||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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Updated vulnerabilities
BitchX: Denial of service vulnerability
| Package(s): | BitchX | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0334 | |||
| Created: | June 17, 2003 | Updated: | June 17, 2003 | |||
| Description: | A Denial Of Service (DoS) vulnerability was discovered in BitchX that would allow a remote attacker to crash BitchX by changing certain channel modes. Read more here and here. | |||||
| Alerts: |
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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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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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Xpdf - command execution vulnerability
| Package(s): | Xpdf | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0434 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | June 18, 2003 | Updated: | July 24, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Xpdf suffers from the same sort of "execute arbitrary code embedded in a malicious document" vulnerability that is so widespread in other PostScript and PDF interpreters. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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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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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CUPS: vulnerability in the CUPS IPP implementation
| Package(s): | cups | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0195 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | May 27, 2003 | Updated: | July 22, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | Phil D'Amore of Red Hat discovered a vulnerability in the CUPS IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) implementation. The IPP implementation is single-threaded, which means only one request can be serviced at a time. An attacker could make a partial request that does not time out and therefore creates a denial of service. In order to exploit this bug, an attacker must have the ability to make a TCP connection to the IPP port (by default 631). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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ethereal: buffer and integer overflows
| Package(s): | ethereal | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0356 CAN-2003-0357 | |||||||||
| Created: | June 12, 2003 | Updated: | June 18, 2003 | |||||||||
| Description: | Timo Sirainen discovered several vulnerabilities in ethereal, a network traffic analyzer. These include one-byte buffer overflows in the AIM, GIOP Gryphon, OSPF, PPTP, Quake, Quake2, Quake3, Rsync, SMB, SMPP, and TSP dissectors, and integer overflows in the Mount and PPP dissectors. | |||||||||||
| 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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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: |
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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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gnocatan: buffer overflows, denial of service
| Package(s): | gnocatan | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0433 | ||||||
| Created: | June 12, 2003 | Updated: | June 28, 2003 | ||||||
| Description: | Bas Wijnen discovered that the gnocatan server is vulnerable to several buffer overflows which could be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the server system. | ||||||||
| Alerts: |
| ||||||||
gnupg: key validation
| Package(s): | gnupg | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0255 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | May 15, 2003 | Updated: | November 17, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | A key validation bug was discovered in the GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) which would cause keys with more then one user ID to trust all user ID's with the amount of trust given to the most-valid user ID. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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kernel 2.4 - two new vulnerabilities
| Package(s): | kernel | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0244 CAN-2003-0246 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created: | May 14, 2003 | Updated: | July 25, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: | The 2.4.20 (and prior) kernel contains a couple of vulnerabilities that are worth fixing.
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| Alerts: |
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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: |
| |||||
kopete: vulnerabiliy in GnuPG plugin
| Package(s): | kopete | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0256 | |||||||||
| Created: | May 8, 2003 | Updated: | June 27, 2003 | |||||||||
| Description: | A vulnerability was discovered in versions of kopete prior to 0.6.2. Kopete is a KDE instant messenger client. This vulnerabiliy is in the GnuPG plugin that allows for users to send each other GPG-encrypted instant messages. The plugin passes encrypted messages to gpg, but does no checking to sanitize the commandline passed to gpg. This can allow remote users to execute arbitrary code, with the permissions of the user running kopete, on the local system. | |||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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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: |
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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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lyskom-server: denial of service
| Package(s): | lyskom-server | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0366 | |||
| Created: | June 13, 2003 | Updated: | June 17, 2003 | |||
| Description: | Calle Dybedahl discovered a bug in lyskom-server which could result in a denial of service where an unauthenticated user could cause the server to become unresponsive as it processes a large query. | |||||
| Alerts: |
| |||||
man: format string exploit
| Package(s): | man | CVE #(s): | ||||
| Created: | June 16, 2003 | Updated: | June 17, 2003 | |||
| Description: | Versions of man 1.5l and below contain a format string vulnerability. The vulnerability occurs when man uses an optional catalog file, supplied by the NLSPATH/LANG environmental variables. See the full advisory for more details. | |||||
| Alerts: |
| |||||
mikmod: buffer overflow
| Package(s): | mikmod | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0427 | |||||||||||||||
| Created: | June 16, 2003 | Updated: | June 16, 2005 | |||||||||||||||
| Description: | Ingo Saitz discovered a bug in mikmod whereby a long filename inside an archive file can overflow a buffer when the archive is being read by mikmod. | |||||||||||||||||
| Alerts: |
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Nessus NASL scripting engine security issues
| Package(s): | nessus | CVE #(s): | ||||
| Created: | May 27, 2003 | Updated: | August 12, 2004 | |||
| Description: | Some some vulnerabilities exsist in the Nessus NASL scripting engine. To exploit these flaws, an attacker would need to have a valid Nessus account as well as the ability to upload arbitrary Nessus plugins in the Nessus server (this option is disabled by default) or he/she would need to trick a user somehow into running a specially crafted nasl script. Read the full advisory for additional information. | |||||
| Alerts: |
| |||||
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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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noweb: insecure temporary files
| Package(s): | noweb | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0381 | ||||||
| Created: | June 17, 2003 | Updated: | June 28, 2003 | ||||||
| Description: | Jakob Lell discovered a bug in the 'noroff' script included in noweb whereby a temporary file was created insecurely. During a review, several other instances of this problem were found and fixed. Any of these bugs could be exploited by a local user to overwrite arbitrary files owned by the user invoking the script. | ||||||||
| Alerts: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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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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. | ||||||||||||||
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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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radiusd-cistron: possible remote system compromise
| Package(s): | radiusd-cistron | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0450 | ||||||||||||
| Created: | June 13, 2003 | Updated: | July 11, 2003 | ||||||||||||
| Description: | The package radiusd-cistron is an implementation of the RADIUS protocol. Unfortunately the RADIUS server handles large NAS numbers incorrectly. This leads to overwriting internal memory of the server process and may be abused to gain remote access to the system the RADIUS server is running on. | ||||||||||||||
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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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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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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. | ||||||||
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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. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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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. | |||||||||||
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webmin: session ID spoofing
| Package(s): | webmin | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0101 | ||||||
| Created: | June 13, 2003 | Updated: | November 18, 2003 | ||||||
| Description: | miniserv.pl in the webmin package does not properly handle metacharacters, such as line feeds and carriage returns, in Base64-encoded strings used in Basic authentication. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to spoof a session ID, and thereby gain root privileges. | ||||||||
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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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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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xinetd: Memory leak in xinetd 2.3.10
| Package(s): | xinetd | CVE #(s): | CAN-2003-0211 | |||||||||||||||
| Created: | May 13, 2003 | Updated: | November 12, 2003 | |||||||||||||||
| Description: | Xinetd is a 'master server' that is used to to accept service connection
requests and start the appropriate servers.
Because of a programming error, memory was allocated and never freed if a connection was refused for any reason. An attacker could exploit this flaw to crash the xinetd server, rendering all services it controls unavailable. In addition, other flaws in xinetd could cause incorrect operation in certain unusual server configurations. All users of xinetd are advised to update to xinetd-2.3.11 which is not vulnerable to these issues. | |||||||||||||||||
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Resources
Report: International Research on Privacy for Electronic Government
Joichi Ito has, with many helpers, compiled a report on privacy and privacy-enhancing technologies which is intended to help with the planning of electronic government initiatives in Japan. It's a large thing, being several hundred pages available in PDF format. It is well worth a look, though, as a comprehensive summary of the privacy situation in several parts of the world.
Linux Advisory Watch
The June 20 issue of the Linux Advisory Watch newsletter from LinuxSecurity.com is available.
Events
Security Symposium, Aug 4-8, Washington DC
The 12th Usenix Security Symposium is scheduled for August 4 through 8 in Washington, DC. Participants include Steve Bellovin, Bill Cheswick, Niels Provos, Kevin Fu, Peter Gutmann, Dan Boneh, David Farber and Mark Seiden. Registration is open now for interested participants.
Industrial Experience in Security at ACM CCS
The Tenth ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security is happening in Washington, DC, on October 28 and 29. This year there will be a special session on "industrial experience in security." "This special session in an otherwise academic conference is an opportunity for security practitioners in industry to tell academics how it's really done: what works, and what doesn't. Submissions are only 3 pages long, and so should impose minimal burden on those submitting a paper." Papers are due June 27 (soon!).
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