LWN.net Logo

Security

Security news

On quietly fixing security holes

A recent Bugtraq posting came with the following statement:
Advertisement

I have discovered a signed/unsigned issue in a routine responsible for demarshalling XDR data for NFSv3 procedure calls. As far as I can tell, this bug has existed since NFSv3 support was integrated. It has been silently fixed in 2.4.21.

This bug allows a remote attacker who can send packets to an NFSv3 server to overwrite memory and bring the system down. It would appear to be a hard vulnerability to exploit for anything beyond a denial of service, however.

The problem was not fixed entirely silently in 2.4.21; the relevant changelog entry reads "Avoid oops when NFSD decodes enourmous filehandle." Still, the fix has not been all that widely advertised either; there have been no alerts reading "systems running 2.4.20 and prior kernels may be subject to a denial of service vulnerability." In that sense, this was a classic "quiet fix."

There are advantages to quiet fixes when nobody is known to be exploiting the problem. With luck, the fix will be widely deployed before anybody notices the problem. If all goes well, many vulnerable installations can be protected before anybody begins to exploit the problem, and without the need for a panic update. These advantages need to be weighed against a couple of problems with quiet fixes, however. One is that crackers do watch changelogs and patch releases, hoping to find just this sort of fix. And the other is that many sites may continue to run vulnerable code because nobody has told them that there is a problem.

If you run any NFS servers with kernels older than 2.4.21, this is your notice that you may want to look into an upgrade. So far, nobody has been hurt by the quiet nature of this particular fix. Even so, it would have been better to treat it as the true security hole that it is.

Comments (3 posted)

New vulnerabilities

Apache: denial of service vulnerabilities

Package(s):apache CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0460
Created:July 24, 2003 Updated:July 30, 2003
Description: The Apache Software Foundation and The Apache Server Project released a new version of the Apache webserver which addresses the following security vulnerabilities:

Denial of service (VU #379828) Ryan O'Neill reported that it is possible to make the httpd server enter infinite loops and crash under certain circumstances. A new configuration directive has been created (LimitInternalRecursion) to avoid these infinite loops and abort the request which caused them if the configured limit has been reached.

File descriptor leak Leaks of several file descriptors to child processes, such as CGI scripts, were fixed.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:704 2003-07-24

Comments (none posted)

konqueror: information disclosure vulnerability

Package(s):kde konqueror CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0459
Created:July 30, 2003 Updated:August 11, 2003
Description: All versions of Konqueror through KDE 3.1.2 contain a vulnerability wherein the browser could (in rare situations) send authentication information on an unrelated web site. See this advisory for details.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:079 2003-07-31
Debian DSA-361-1 2003-08-01
Slackware SSA:2003-213-01 2003-08-01
Debian DSA-361-2 2003-08-09
Red Hat RHSA-2003:235-01 2003-08-11

Comments (none posted)

mnogosearch: Remote buffer overflow vulnerabilities

Package(s):mnogosearch CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0436 CVE-2002-0789
Created:July 28, 2003 Updated:July 30, 2003
Description: Buffer overflow in the "ul" variable (CAN-2003-0436) pokleyzz <pokleyzz -at- scan-associates.net> reported a buffer overflow vulnerability in mnoGoSearch which can be exploited remotely to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the webserver.

Buffer overflow in the query variable ("q") (CVE-2002-0789) qitest1 <qitest1 -at- bespin.org> reported a buffer overflow vulnerability in the query variable ("q") which can be exploited remotely to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the webserver.

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:711 2003-07-28

Comments (none posted)

perl: cross site scripting vulnerability in CGI.pm module

Package(s):perl CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0615
Created:July 29, 2003 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: obscure@eyeonsecurity.org reported a cross site scripting vulnerability in the CGI.pm perl module. This module is used to facilitate the creation of web forms and is part of the perl-modules RPM package.

CAN-2003-0615

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:713 2003-07-29
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.036 2003-08-06
Debian DSA-371-1 2003-08-11
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:084 2003-08-20
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.039 2003-09-15
Red Hat RHSA-2003:256-01 2003-09-22
Red Hat RHSA-2003:256-02 2003-10-03

Comments (none posted)

stunnel: signal handler reentrancy DoS

Package(s):stunnel CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1563
Created:July 25, 2003 Updated:November 25, 2003
Description: Stunnel is a wrapper for network connections. It can be used to tunnel an unencrypted network connection over a secure connection (encrypted using SSL or TLS) or to provide a secure means of connecting to services that do not natively support encryption.

When configured to listen for incoming connections (instead of being invoked by xinetd), stunnel can be configured to either start a thread or a child process to handle each new connection. If Stunnel is configured to start a new child process to handle each connection, it will receive a SIGCHLD signal when that child exits.

Stunnel versions prior to 4.04 would perform tasks in the SIGCHLD signal handler which, if interrupted by another SIGCHLD signal, could be unsafe. This could lead to a denial of service.

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:221-01 2003-07-25
EnGarde ESA-20030806-020 2003-08-06
Trustix 2003-0030 2003-08-07
Conectiva CLA-2003:736 2003-09-05
SCO Group CSSA-2003-026.0 2003-10-03
Red Hat RHSA-2003:296-01 2003-11-24

Comments (none posted)

sup: insecure temporary file

Package(s):sup CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0606
Created:July 29, 2003 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: sup, a package used to maintain collections of files in identical versions across machines, fails to take appropriate security precautions when creating temporary files. A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability to overwrite arbitrary files with the privileges of the user running sup.

CAN-2003-0606

Alerts:
Debian DSA-353-1 2003-07-29

Comments (none posted)

Updated vulnerabilities

2.4 kernel - several vulnerabilities

Package(s):2.4 kernel CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0461 CAN-2003-0462 CAN-2003-0464 CAN-2003-0476 CAN-2003-0501 CAN-2003-0550 CAN-2003-0551 CAN-2003-0552
Created:July 21, 2003 Updated:December 23, 2003
Description: Several security issues have been discovered affecting the Linux kernel:
  • CAN-2003-0461: /proc/tty/driver/serial reveals the exact character counts for serial links. This could be used by a local attacker to infer password lengths and inter-keystroke timings during password entry.

  • CAN-2003-0462: Paul Starzetz discovered a file read race condition existing in the execve() system call, which could cause a local crash.

  • CAN-2003-0464: A recent change in the RPC code set the reuse flag on newly-created sockets. Olaf Kirch noticed that his could allow normal users to bind to UDP ports used for services such as nfsd.

  • CAN-2003-0476: The execve system call in Linux 2.4.x records the file descriptor of the executable process in the file table of the calling process, allowing local users to gain read access to restricted file descriptors.

  • CAN-2003-0501: The /proc filesystem in Linux allows local users to obtain sensitive information by opening various entries in /proc/self before executing a setuid program. This causes the program to fail to change the ownership and permissions of already opened entries.

  • CAN-2003-0550: The STP protocol is known to have no security, which could allow attackers to alter the bridge topology. STP is now turned off by default.

  • CAN-2003-0551: STP input processing was lax in its length checking, which could lead to a denial of service.

  • CAN-2003-0552: Jerry Kreuscher discovered that the Forwarding table could be spoofed by sending forged packets with bogus source addresses the same as the local host.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:238-01 2003-07-21
EnGarde ESA-20032407-018 2003-07-24
Debian DSA-358-1 2003-07-31
Debian DSA-358-3 2003-08-04
Debian DSA-358-2 2003-08-05
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:034 2003-08-12
Debian DSA-358-4 2003-08-13
Gentoo 200308-01 2003-08-14
Red Hat RHSA-2003:408-00 2003-12-19

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

Comments (none posted)

PHP: Cross site scripting vulnerability

Package(s):PHP CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0442
Created:July 2, 2003 Updated:August 13, 2003
Description: In PHP version 4.3.1 and earlier, when transparent session ID support is enabled using the "session.use_trans_sid" option, the session ID is not escaped before use. This allows a Cross Site Scripting attack.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:204-01 2003-07-02
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.032 2003-07-07
Conectiva CLA-2003:691 2003-07-08
Debian DSA-351-1 2003-07-16
Yellow Dog YDU-20030710-2 2003-07-10
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:082 2003-08-04
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:082-1 2003-08-12

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:
Debian DSA-208-1 2002-12-12
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.014 2002-12-16
Trustix 2002-0087 2002-12-19
Gentoo 200212-6 2002-12-20
SCO Group CSSA-2004-007.0 2004-02-20

Comments (none posted)

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:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:196-01 2003-06-18
Yellow Dog YDU-20030620-1 2003-06-20
Gentoo 200306-11 2003-06-25
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:071 2003-06-27
Conectiva CLA-2003:674 2003-07-04
Red Hat RHSA-2003:196-02 2003-07-17
Yellow Dog YDU-20030723-1 2003-07-23
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:071-1 2003-07-23

Comments (none posted)

apache: multiple vulnerabilities in Apache HTTP server

Package(s):apache CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0192 CAN-2003-0253 CAN-2003-0254
Created:July 11, 2003 Updated:September 22, 2003
Description: The Apache Software Foundation and the Apache HTTP Server Project have announced the release of the Apache HTTP Server 2.0.47. This release fixes four security vulnerabilities:
  • Certain sequences of per-directory renegotiations and the SSLCipherSuite directive being used to upgrade from a weak ciphersuite to a strong one could result in the weak ciphersuite being used in place of the strong one. [CAN-2003-0192]

  • Certain errors returned by accept() on rarely accessed ports could cause temporal denial of service, due to a bug in the prefork MPM. [CAN-2003-0253]

  • Denial of service was caused when target host is IPv6 but ftp proxy server can't create IPv6 socket. [CAN-2003-0254]

  • The server would crash when going into an infinite loop due to too many subsequent internal redirects and nested subrequests. [VU#379828]
Alerts:
Trustix 2003-0025 2003-07-11
Conectiva CLA-2003:698 2003-07-21
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:075 2003-07-21
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:075-1 2003-08-28
Red Hat RHSA-2003:240-01 2003-09-04
Red Hat RHSA-2003:243-01 2003-09-22

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

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

Comments (none posted)

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:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:171-01 2003-05-27
Slackware ssa:2003-149-01 2003-05-29
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:062 2003-05-29
Yellow Dog YDU-20030602-3 2003-06-02
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:028 2003-06-06
Debian DSA-317-1 2003-06-11
Gentoo 200306-09 2003-06-14
Conectiva CLA-2003:702 2003-07-22

Comments (none posted)

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:
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:070 2003-06-23
Conectiva CLA-2003:662 2003-06-25
Gentoo 200306-13 2003-06-25
Red Hat RHSA-2003:203-01 2003-07-03
Yellow Dog YDU-20030718-2 2003-07-18
SCO Group CSSA-2003-030.0 2003-11-07

Comments (none posted)

Filename disclosure vulnerability in fam

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

Comments (none posted)

fdclone: insecure temporary directory

Package(s):fdclone CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0596
Created:July 23, 2003 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: fdclone creates a temporary directory in /tmp as a workspace. However, if this directory already exists, the existing directory is used instead, regardless of its ownership or permissions. This would allow an attacker to gain access to fdclone's temporary files and their contents, or replace them with other files under the attacker's control.

CAN-2003-0596

Alerts:
Debian DSA-352-1 2003-07-22

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:
Conectiva CLA-2002:554 2002-12-16
Red Hat RHSA-2002:293-09 2002-12-17
Debian DSA-216-1 2002-12-24
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:001 2003-01-02
SCO Group CSSA-2003-001.0 2003-01-09
EnGarde ESA-20030127-002 2003-01-27
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:011 2003-01-27
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-023-01 2003-10-17

Comments (3 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:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:197-06 2002-10-03
Red Hat RHSA-2002:197-09 2002-11-06
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:009 2004-02-04

Comments (none posted)

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:
EnGarde ESA-20030515-016 2003-05-15
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.029 2003-05-16
Gentoo 200305-04 2003-05-16
Red Hat RHSA-2003:175-01 2003-05-20
Slackware ssa:2003-141-04 2003-05-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:061 2003-05-22
Yellow Dog YDU-20030602-4 2003-06-02
Conectiva CLA-2003:694 2003-07-11
SCO Group CSSA-2003-034.0 2003-11-17

Comments (none posted)

gnupg: gpg setgid

Package(s):gnupg CVE #(s):
Created:July 21, 2003 Updated:July 23, 2003
Description: gpg needs to be setuid to make use of protected memory space, however the setgid bit allowed the gpg user to overwrite files owned by the group root.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200307-06 2003-07-19

Comments (none 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:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:126-01 2003-04-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:046 2003-04-15
Red Hat RHSA-2003:264-01 2003-09-09
Conectiva CLA-2003:737 2003-09-12
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:093 2003-09-18
Debian DSA-710-1 2005-04-18

Comments (none posted)

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.
  • 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.

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:172-00 2003-05-14
EnGarde ESA-20030515-017 2003-05-15
Red Hat RHSA-2003:145-01 2003-05-27
Red Hat RHSA-2003:187-01 2003-06-03
Debian DSA-311-1 2003-06-08
Debian DSA-312-1 2003-06-09
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:066 2003-06-11
Slackware SSA:2003-168-01 2003-06-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:074 2003-07-15
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:066-1 2003-07-21
Conectiva CLA-2003:701 2003-07-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:066-2 2003-07-25

Comments (2 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:
Debian DSA-213-1 2002-12-19
Red Hat RHSA-2003:006-06 2003-01-09
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0004 2003-01-14
Yellow Dog YDU-20030114-2 2002-01-14
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.001 2003-01-15
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:008 2003-01-20
Conectiva CLA-2003:564 2003-01-23
Red Hat RHSA-2004:249-01 2004-06-18
Fedora FEDORA-2004-173 2004-06-18
Fedora FEDORA-2004-175 2004-06-18
Fedora FEDORA-2004-174 2004-06-18
Fedora FEDORA-2004-176 2004-06-18
Whitebox WBSA-2004:249-01 2004-06-21
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:063 2004-06-29
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.030 2004-07-06
Gentoo 200407-06 2004-07-08

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

Comments (none posted)

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:
Debian DSA-320-1 2003-06-13
Gentoo 200307-01 2003-07-02
Fedora FEDORA-2005-404 2005-06-09
Red Hat RHSA-2005:506-01 2005-06-13
Fedora FEDORA-2005-405 2005-06-16

Comments (none posted)

mpg123 - buffer overflow

Package(s):mpg123 CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0577
Created:July 16, 2003 Updated:September 30, 2003
Description: The mpg123 utility contains a buffer overflow vulnerability which can allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code by way of a malicious MP3 file.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:695 2003-07-15
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:078 2003-07-23
Gentoo 200309-17 2003-09-30

Comments (none posted)

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:
Gentoo 200305-10 2003-05-27

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:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:228-11 2002-12-17
Conectiva CLA-2003:778 2003-11-07

Comments (none posted)

nfs-utils xlog() off-by-one bug

Package(s):nfs-utils CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0252
Created:July 14, 2003 Updated:March 8, 2004
Description: Linux NFS utils package contains remotely exploitable off-by-one bug. A local or remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending specially crafted request to rpc.mountd daemon. See this BugTraq post for more details.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:206-01 2003-07-14
Debian DSA-349-1 2003-07-14
Slackware SSA:2003-195-01 2003-07-14
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:031 2003-07-15
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-018-01 2003-07-14
Slackware SSA:2003-195-01b 2003-07-15
Yellow Dog YDU-20030718-1 2003-07-18
Gentoo 200307-07 2003-07-19
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:076 2003-07-21
Conectiva CLA-2003:700 2003-07-22
SCO Group CSSA-2003-037.0 2003-11-17
Trustix TSLSA-2004-0009 2004-03-05

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:
Gentoo 200305-01 2002-03-05
Gentoo 200305-02 2003-05-13
Red Hat RHSA-2003:222-01 2003-07-29
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.035 2003-08-06
Ubuntu USN-34-1 2004-11-30

Comments (1 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:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:213-06 2002-11-11
Conectiva CLA-2002:545 2002-11-13
EnGarde ESA-20021122-031 2002-11-22
Gentoo 200211-005 2002-11-20
SCO Group CSSA-2003-008.0 2003-03-04

Comments (none posted)

phpgroupware - cross-site scripting and other exploits

Package(s):phpgroupware CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0504 CAN-2003-0582
Created:July 16, 2003 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: Several vulnerabilities were discovered in all versions of phpgroupware prior to 0.9.14.006. This latest version fixes an exploitable condition in all versions that can be exploited remotely without authentication and can lead to arbitrary code execution on the web server. This vulnerability is being actively exploited.

Version 0.9.14.005 fixed several other vulnerabilities including cross-site scripting issues that can be exploited to obtain sensitive information such as authentication cookies.

See this Security Corportation report for more information.

CAN-2003-0504
CAN-2003-0582

Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2003:697 2003-07-16
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:077 2003-07-23
Conectiva CLA-2003:703 2003-07-23
Debian DSA-365-1 2003-08-05

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:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:062-1 2003-02-11
Trustix 2003-0004 2003-02-20
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-005-01 2003-04-08
Debian DSA-397-1 2003-11-07

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

Comments (none posted)

semi: insecure temporary file

Package(s):semi, wemi CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0440
Created:July 7, 2003 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: semi, a MIME library for GNU Emacs, does not take appropriate security precautions when creating temporary files. This bug could potentially be exploited to overwrite arbitrary files with the privileges of the user running Emacs and semi, potentially with contents supplied by the attacker.

wemi is a fork of semi, and contains the same bug.

CAN-2003-0440

Alerts:
Debian DSA-339-1 2003-07-06
Red Hat RHSA-2003:234-01 2003-07-23
Yellow Dog YDU-20030723-2 2003-07-23
Gentoo 200308-02 2003-08-14

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 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.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:096-24 2002-09-18
Gentoo tar-20021001 2002-10-01
Gentoo unzip-20021001 2002-10-01
EnGarde ESA-20021003-022 2002-10-03
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:065 2002-10-10
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:066 2002-10-10
Conectiva CLA-2002:538 2002-10-29
Red Hat RHSA-2006:0195-01 2006-02-21
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:183571-1 2006-04-04

Comments (1 posted)

teapop: SQL injection

Package(s):teapop CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0515
Created:July 9, 2003 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: teapop, a POP-3 server, includes modules for authenticating users against a PostgreSQL or MySQL database. These modules do not properly escape user-supplied strings before using them in SQL queries. This vulnerability could be exploited to execute arbitrary SQL under the privileges of the database user as which teapop has authenticated.

CAN-2003-0515

Alerts:
Debian DSA-347-1 2003-07-08
Gentoo 200309-18 2003-09-30

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:
SCO Group CSSA-2001-030.0 2001-08-10
Conectiva CLA-2001:413 2001-08-24
Debian DSA-075-1 2001-08-14
Debian DSA-075-2 2001-08-14
HP HPSBTL0202-023 2002-02-12
Mandrake MDKSA-2001:068 2001-08-13
Mandrake MDKSA-2001:093 2001-12-17
Progeny PROGENY-SA-2001-27 2001-08-14
Red Hat RHSA-2001:099-06 2001-08-09
Red Hat RHSA-2001:099-09 2002-02-07
Red Hat RHSA-2001:100-02 2001-08-09
Slackware sl-997726350 2001-08-09
SuSE SuSE-SA:2001:029 2001-09-03
Yellow Dog YDU-20010810-1 2001-08-10
Yellow Dog YDU-20010810-2 2001-08-10
Gentoo 200410-03 2004-10-05

Comments (none posted)

unzip: directory traversal vulnerability

Package(s):unzip CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0282
Created:July 1, 2003 Updated:November 13, 2003
Description: A vulnerabilitiy in unzip version 5.50 and earlier allows attackers to overwrite arbitrary files during archive extraction by placing invalid (non-printable) characters between two "." characters. These non-printable characters are filtered, resulting in a ".." sequence. See the full advisory for further information.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:199-01 2003-07-01
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-017-01 2003-07-02
Conectiva CLA-2003:672 2003-07-02
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:073 2003-07-07
Debian DSA-344-1 2003-07-08
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.033 2003-07-10
Gentoo 200307-02 2003-07-11
Yellow Dog YDU-20030710-1 2003-07-10
Red Hat RHSA-2003:199-02 2003-08-15
Conectiva CLA-2003:724 2003-08-18
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:073-1 2003-08-19
Slackware SSA:2003-237-01 2003-08-25
Debian DSA-344-2 2003-08-26
SCO Group CSSA-2003-031.0 2003-11-07

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:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:297-17 2003-01-15
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2003.003 2003-01-21
Gentoo 200301-13 2003-01-22
Yellow Dog YDU-20030127-3 2003-01-27
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:012 2003-02-03
Conectiva CLA-2004:812 2004-02-10

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

Comments (none posted)

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.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-319-1 2003-06-12
SCO Group CSSA-2003-035.0 2003-11-17

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

Comments (none 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:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:029 2002-08-01
Debian DSA-144-1 2002-08-06
SCO Group CSSA-2002-048.0 2002-11-18

Comments (none posted)

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.

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2003:160-01 2003-05-13
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:056 2003-05-14
Gentoo 200305-08 2003-05-19
Yellow Dog YDU-20030602-1 2003-06-02
Conectiva CLA-2003:782 2003-11-12

Comments (none posted)

Resources

Security newsletters

The July 28 O'Reilly Security Alerts column is available; it looks at the latest apache and kernel problems, along with several others.

The latest Linux Advisory Watch and Linux Security Week newletters from LinuxSecurity.com are also available.

Comments (none posted)

Events

Financial Cryptography '04

The 2004 Financial Cryptography conference will be held February 9 to 12 in Key West, Florida. The call for papers has gone out, with submissions due by September 1.

Full Story (comments: none)

Page editor: Jonathan Corbet
Next page: Kernel development>>

Copyright © 2003, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
Powered by Rackspace Managed Hosting.