LWN.net Logo

Security

Brief items

A new Adore root kit

For your cracking pleasure: a new version of the Adore root kit has been announced. This code is, of course, "for educational purposes only." On the notion that it's best to look at code like this when one has downloaded it explicitly, rather than when one has found it on one's system, we grabbed a copy.

Adore is a kernel module which is intended to give a cracker the full run of a compromised system without detection. To that end, it installs itself into several key parts of the kernel and lurks until somebody comes along who knows the right "key," where a key is a special process ID. If you do not know this key, finding signs of an Adore installation will be difficult, to say the least.

The module starts by hooking itself into various filesystems. It digs up the inode for the root filesystem, and replaces that inode's readdir() function pointer with one of its own. The Adore version performs like the one it replaces, except that it hides any files owned by a specific user and group ID. If you are a Black Hat trying to keep installed files out of the eye of the system administrator, this is the way to do it.

Similarly, Adore hooks itself into the lookup function for /proc. An attempt to read /proc/KEY, where KEY is a predefined key value, will give the current process the ability to access other Adore functions. A process which has been "authenticated" in this way can then, by accessing other special /proc filenames, give itself full root privileges or tell Adore to hide other processes from view. The module keeps a list of such processes; once a process appears in that list, it will never appear in /proc, and thus it will not by displayed by utilities like ps or top. The only way to find such processes, it would seem, would be to dig through the entire kernel task list and check to see if any of them are not represented in /proc.

People who crack into systems may well want to run network services on those systems. To cater to their needs, Adore replaces the show() function for /proc/net/tcp; the new version edits out any connections involving ports that the person installing Adore would rather others didn't know about. A hidden server process, running from a hidden executable, and sitting behind a hidden port could be very hard for a system administrator to find.

For good measure, Adore will also filter out entries made into files like /var/log/utmp or syslog on behalf of hidden processes.

The one thing Adore does not do is hide itself; it will show up in the list of loaded kernel modules. To address that, a separate module called "cleanup" is provided. If cleanup is loaded immediately after Adore, it will patch Adore out of the list of loaded modules, thus hiding it altogether.

All of this functionality has been implemented in a kernel module which is a mere 600 lines long. This module is scary; it is a living demonstration of what an attacker can do once he gets root access on a system. A careful attacker could, using this module, maintain undetected control of a compromised system indefinitely.

Comments (35 posted)

New vulnerabilities

calife: buffer overflow

Package(s):calife CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0188
Created:March 17, 2004 Updated:March 17, 2004
Description: Calife, a program which provides super user privileges to specific users, was found to contain a buffer overflow related to the getpass(3) library function. A local attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability, given knowledge of a local user's password and the presence of at least one entry in /etc/calife.auth, to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-461-1 2004-03-11

Comments (none posted)

OpenSSL: denial of service vulnerabilities

Package(s):OpenSSL CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0081 CAN-2003-0851
Created:March 17, 2004 Updated:November 2, 2005
Description: Versions 0.9.7a-c of the OpenSSL library suffer from two denial of service vulnerabilities; see the version 0.9.7d release announcement for details.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2005:830-00 2005-11-02
Red Hat RHSA-2005:829-00 2005-11-02
Fedora FEDORA-2005-1042 2005-10-31
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:1395 2004-05-08
Conectiva CLA-2004:834 2004-03-31
Whitebox WBSA-2004:084-01 2004-03-23
Red Hat RHSA-2004:084-01 2004-03-23
Fedora FEDORA-2004-095 2004-03-19
Whitebox WBSA-2004:120-01 2004-03-22
Trustix TSLSA-2004-0012 2004-03-17
Slackware SSA:2004-077-01 2004-03-17
Red Hat RHSA-2004:121-01 2004-03-17
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.007 2004-03-18
Gentoo 200403-03 2004-03-17
Debian DSA-465-1 2004-03-17
Netwosix NW-2004-0005 2004-03-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:023 2004-03-17
SuSE SuSE-SA:2004:007 2004-03-17
Red Hat RHSA-2004:120-01 2004-03-17
Red Hat RHSA-2004:119-01 2004-03-17
EnGarde ESA-20040317-003 2004-03-17

Comments (1 posted)

samba privilege escalation

Package(s):samba CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0186
Created:March 15, 2004 Updated:April 20, 2004
Description: Samba, a LanManager-like file and printer server for Unix, was found to contain a vulnerability whereby a local user could use the "smbmnt" utility, which is setuid root, to mount a file share from a remote server which contained setuid programs under the control of the user. These programs could then be executed to gain privileges on the local system.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:035 2004-04-19
Debian DSA-463-1 2004-03-12

Comments (none posted)

uudeview temp file problem

Package(s):uudeview CVE #(s):
Created:March 13, 2004 Updated:March 29, 2004
Description: uudeview 0.5.19 and later has problem with insecure temp file handling that can lead to failure retrieving the filename during decode.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200403-05 2004-03-26
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.006 2004-03-12

Comments (none posted)

xitalk missing privilege release

Package(s):xitalk CVE #(s):
Created:March 13, 2004 Updated:March 17, 2004
Description: The xitalk utility fails to drop privileges; this problem can be exploited by a local user to run commands under the "utmp" group ID.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-462-1 2004-03-12

Comments (none posted)

Updated vulnerabilities

apache2: Denial of Service vulnerability

Package(s):apache2 CVE #(s):
Created:September 29, 2003 Updated:March 25, 2004
Description: A problem was discovered in Apache2 where CGI scripts that write more than 4k to the standard error stream will hang the script's execution. This problem can lead to a denial of service situation. See this bug report for additional details.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200403-04 2004-03-22
Netwosix NW-2004-0006 2004-03-25
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:096-1 2003-10-24
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:096 2003-09-26

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:
Red Hat RHSA-2005:005-01 2005-01-05
Debian DSA-154-1 2002-08-15

Comments (none posted)

fetchmail may crash on specially crafted message

Package(s):fetchmail CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0792
Created:October 17, 2003 Updated:April 8, 2004
Description: A bug was discovered in fetchmail 6.2.4 where a specially crafted email message can cause fetchmail to crash.
Alerts:
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.012 2004-04-08
Gentoo 200403-10 2004-03-30
Netwosix NW-2004-0002 2004-02-20
SCO Group CSSA-2004-004.0 2004-02-19
Slackware SSA:2003-300-02 2003-10-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:101 2003-10-16

Comments (none posted)

gdk-pixbuf: buffer overflow

Package(s):gdk-pixbuf CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0111
Created:March 10, 2004 Updated:March 16, 2004
Description: Versions of gdk-pixbuf prior to 0.20 contain a vulnerability which can be exploited, via a malicious BMP file, to crash Evolution.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-464-1 2004-03-16
Whitebox WBSA-2004:103-01 2004-03-15
Red Hat RHSA-2004:103-01 2004-03-10
Red Hat RHSA-2004:102-01 2004-03-10
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:020 2004-03-10

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:
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)

iproute: local denial of service

Package(s):iproute net-tools CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0856
Created:November 25, 2003 Updated:December 14, 2004
Description: The iproute utility is susceptible to spoofed netlink messages sent by local users, with the result that denial of service attacks are possible.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:148 2004-12-13
Fedora FEDORA-2004-154 2004-06-03
Fedora FEDORA-2004-115 2004-05-11
Debian DSA-492-1 2004-04-18
Gentoo 200404-10 2004-04-09
Red Hat RHSA-2003:316-01 2003-11-24

Comments (none posted)

kdelibs: cookie disclosure

Package(s):kdelibs CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0592
Created:March 10, 2004 Updated:August 24, 2004
Description: kdelibs (and, thus, Konqueror) has a vulnerability where a hostile server can force the disclosure of cookies that should not be presented to it. KDE versions 3.1.3 and later contain a fix.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200408-23 2004-08-24
Red Hat RHSA-2004:074-01 2004-03-10
Red Hat RHSA-2004:075-01 2004-03-10
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:022 2004-03-10
Debian DSA-459-1 2004-03-10

Comments (none posted)

kdepim: VCF file information reader vulnerability

Package(s):kdepim CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0988
Created:January 15, 2004 Updated:May 26, 2004
Description: KDE has issued a security advisory for all versions of kdepim as distributed with KDE versions 3.1.0 through 3.1.4 inclusive. A carefully crafted .VCF file potentially enables local attackers to compromise the privacy of a victim's data or execute arbitrary commands with the victim's privileges. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2003-0988 to this issue.
Alerts:
Fedora FEDORA-2004-133 2004-05-19
Gentoo 200404-02 2004-04-06
Whitebox WBSA-2004:005-01 2004-02-12
Conectiva CLA-2004:810 2004-01-20
Slackware SSA:2004-014-01 2004-01-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:003 2004-01-14
Red Hat RHSA-2004:006-01 2004-01-07

Comments (none posted)

kernel: local root exploit in 2.4.22

Package(s):kernel CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0961
Created:December 1, 2003 Updated:April 5, 2004
Description: A vulnerability was discovered in the Linux kernel versions 2.4.22 and previous. A flaw in bounds checking in the do_brk() function can allow a local attacker to gain root privileges. This vulnerability is known to be exploitable.

The 2.4.23 kernel contains the fix. For more details on how this vulnerability works, see this LWN article.

Alerts:
Debian DSA-475-1 2004-04-05
Debian DSA-470-1 2004-04-01
Debian DSA-442-1 2004-02-19
Debian DSA-433-1 2004-02-04
Debian DSA-423-1 2004-01-15
Red Hat RHSA-2003:368-01 2003-12-19
Conectiva CLA-2003:796 2003-12-05
Gentoo 200312-02 2003-12-04
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:049 2003-12-04
Yellow Dog YDU-20031203-1 2003-12-03
Red Hat RHSA-2003:389-01 2003-12-01
Fedora FEDORA-2003-026 2003-12-02
Slackware SSA:2003-336-01 2003-12-01
Red Hat RHSA-2003:392-00 2003-12-01
Trustix 2003-0046 2003-12-01
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:110 2003-12-01
Debian DSA-403-1 2003-12-01

Comments (1 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)

libxml2 - arbitrary code execution

Package(s):libxml2 CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0110
Created:February 26, 2004 Updated:August 19, 2009
Description: Yuuichi Teranishi discovered a flaw in libxml2 versions prior to 2.6.6. When fetching a remote resource via FTP or HTTP, libxml2 uses special parsing routines. These routines can overflow a buffer if passed a very long URL. If an attacker is able to find an application using libxml2 that parses remote resources and allows them to influence the URL, then this flaw could be used to execute arbitrary code.
Alerts:
Fedora FEDORA-2009-8594 2009-08-15
Fedora FEDORA-2009-8582 2009-08-15
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:1324 2004-07-19
Conectiva CLA-2004:836 2004-03-31
Gentoo 200403-01 2004-03-06
Trustix TSLSA-2004-0010 2004-03-05
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.003 2004-03-05
Netwosix NW-2004-0004 2004-03-04
Debian DSA-455-1 2004-03-03
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:018 2004-03-03
Red Hat RHSA-2004:091-02 2004-03-03
Whitebox WBSA-2004:090-01 2004-03-01
Red Hat RHSA-2004:090-01 2004-02-26
Fedora FEDORA-2004-087 2004-02-25
Red Hat RHSA-2004:091-01 2004-02-26

Comments (none posted)

mailman denial of service

Package(s):mailman CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0991
Created:February 9, 2004 Updated:May 25, 2004
Description: Matthew Galgoci of Red Hat discovered a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability in versions of Mailman prior to 2.1. An attacker could send a carefully-crafted message causing mailman to crash. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2003-0991 to this issue.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2004:842 2004-05-25
Red Hat RHSA-2004:156-01 2004-04-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:013 2004-02-13
Red Hat RHSA-2004:019-01 2004-02-09

Comments (1 posted)

mc: arbitrary code execution

Package(s):mc CVE #(s):CAN-2003-1023
Created:January 16, 2004 Updated:April 5, 2004
Description: A vulnerability was discovered in Midnight Commander, a file manager, whereby a malicious archive (such as a .tar file) could cause arbitrary code to be executed if opened by Midnight Commander.
Alerts:
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.009 2004-04-05
Gentoo 200403-09 2004-03-29
Conectiva CLA-2004:833 2004-03-31
SCO Group CSSA-2004-014.0 2004-03-25
Whitebox WBSA-2004:035-01 2004-02-12
Fedora FEDORA-2004-058 2004-02-09
Red Hat RHSA-2004:035-01 2004-01-19
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:007 2004-01-26
Red Hat RHSA-2004:034-01 2004-01-19
Debian DSA-424-1 2004-01-16

Comments (none posted)

metamail: integer and buffer overflows

Package(s):metamail CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0104 CAN-2004-0105
Created:February 18, 2004 Updated:May 21, 2004
Description: Versions of metamail through 2.7 contain a set of integer and buffer overflows which are remotely exploitable via a properly crafted message.
Alerts:
Gentoo 200405-17 2004-05-21
Debian DSA-449-1 2004-02-24
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:014 2004-02-18
Slackware SSA:2004-049-02 2004-02-18
Red Hat RHSA-2004:073-01 2004-02-18

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

Comments (none posted)

mod_python: denial of service vulnerability

Package(s):mod_python CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0973
Created:January 27, 2004 Updated:October 4, 2004
Description: Apache's mod_python module could crash the httpd process if a specific, malformed query string was sent.

The Apache Foundation has reported that mod_python may be prone to Denial of Service attacks when handling a malformed query. Mod_python 2.7.9 was released to fix the vulnerability, however, because the vulnerability has not been fully fixed, version 2.7.10 has been released.

Users of mod_python 3.0.4 are not affected by this vulnerability.

Alerts:
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:1325 2004-10-03
Conectiva CLA-2004:837 2004-04-12
Whitebox WBSA-2004:058-01 2004-03-01
Debian DSA-452-1 2004-02-29
Red Hat RHSA-2004:058-01 2004-02-26
Red Hat RHSA-2004:063-01 2004-02-26
Gentoo 200401-03 2004-01-27

Comments (none posted)

mozilla: multiple vulnerabilties

Package(s):mozilla CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0594 CAN-2003-0564
Created:March 10, 2004 Updated:August 19, 2004
Description: Mozilla 1.4 contains a few vulnerabilities, including disclosure of cookies to the wrong server, a scripting vulnerability which can allow an attacker to run arbitrary code, and an S/MIME vulnerability which can lead to remote denial of service or code execution attacks.
Alerts:
Whitebox WBSA-2004:421-01 2004-08-19
Whitebox WBSA-2004:110-01 2004-03-29
Red Hat RHSA-2004:112-01 2004-03-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:021 2004-03-10

Comments (none posted)

mpg321: format string vulnerability

Package(s):mpg321 CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0969
Created:January 6, 2004 Updated:March 28, 2005
Description: A vulnerability was discovered in mpg321, a command-line mp3 player, whereby user-supplied strings were passed to printf(3) unsafely. This vulnerability could be exploited by a remote attacker to overwrite memory, and possibly execute arbitrary code. In order for this vulnerability to be exploited, mpg321 would need to play a malicious mp3 file (including via HTTP streaming).
Alerts:
Gentoo 200503-34 2005-03-28
Debian DSA-411-1 2004-01-05

Comments (none posted)

mplayer: remotely exploitable buffer overflow vulnerability

Package(s):mplayer CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0835
Created:September 29, 2003 Updated:April 6, 2004
Description: A remotely exploitable buffer overflow vulnerability was found in MPlayer. A malicious host can craft a harmful ASX header, and trick MPlayer into executing arbitrary code upon parsing that header. Read the full advisory for details.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:026 2004-04-05
Gentoo 200403-13 2004-03-31
Conectiva CLA-2003:760 2003-10-06
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:097 2003-09-30
Gentoo 200309-15 2003-09-27

Comments (none posted)

mutt: buffer overflow

Package(s):mutt CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0078
Created:February 12, 2004 Updated:March 26, 2004
Description: mutt suffers from a buffer overflow in its "index menu" code. This overflow can be exploited via a hostile message to crash mutt and, perhaps, execute arbitrary code. Version 1.4.2 fixes the problem; see this advisory for details.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2004-013.0 2004-03-25
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.005 2004-03-09
Netwosix NW-2004-0001 2004-02-16
Trustix 2004-0006 2004-02-13
Whitebox WBSA-2004:050-01 2004-02-12
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:010 2004-02-11
Slackware SSA:2004-043-01 2004-02-12
Red Hat RHSA-2004:051-01 2004-02-11
Red Hat RHSA-2004:050-01 2004-02-11
Fedora FEDORA-2004-061 2004-02-11

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)

netpbm: insecure temporary files

Package(s):netpbm CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0924
Created:January 19, 2004 Updated:December 29, 2004
Description: netpbm is graphics conversion toolkit made up of a large number of single-purpose programs. Many of these programs were found to create temporary files in an insecure manner, which could allow a local attacker to overwrite files with the privileges of the user invoking a vulnerable netpbm tool.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2004:909 2004-12-29
Gentoo 200410-02 2004-10-04
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:011-1 2004-09-27
Whitebox WBSA-2004:031-01 2004-02-12
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:011 2004-02-11
Red Hat RHSA-2004:030-01 2004-02-05
Fedora FEDORA-2004-068 2004-02-06
Red Hat RHSA-2004:031-01 2004-01-22
Debian DSA-426-1 2004-01-18

Comments (1 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)

perl information leak

Package(s):perl CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0618
Created:February 2, 2004 Updated:April 21, 2004
Description: Paul Szabo discovered a number of bugs in suidperl, a helper program to run perl scripts with setuid privileges. By exploiting these bugs, an attacker could abuse suidperl to discover information about files (such as testing for their existence and some of their permissions) that should not be accessible to unprivileged users.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-431-2 2004-04-16
Debian DSA-431-1 2004-02-01

Comments (none posted)

postfix: denial of service vulnerabilities

Package(s):postfix CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0468 CAN-2003-0540
Created:August 5, 2003 Updated:May 27, 2004
Description: The postfix MTA, versions through 1.1.12 (but not 2.0) is subject to two remotely exploitable denial of service vulnerabilities; see this advisory from Michal Zalewski for details.
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKA-2004:028 2004-05-26
Trustix 2003-0029 2003-08-04
Mandrake MDKSA-2003:081 2003-08-04
EnGarde ESA-20030804-019 2003-08-04
Conectiva CLA-2003:717 2003-08-04
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:033 2003-08-04
Red Hat RHSA-2003:251-01 2003-08-04
Debian DSA-363-1 2003-08-03

Comments (none posted)

PWLib: possible Denial of Service

Package(s):PWLib CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0097
Created:February 13, 2004 Updated:April 9, 2004
Description: PWLib is a cross-platform class library designed to support the OpenH323 project. OpenH323 provides an implementation of the ITU H.323 teleconferencing protocol, used by packages such as Gnome Meeting.

A test suite for the H.225 protocol (part of the H.323 family) provided by the NISCC uncovered bugs in PWLib prior to version 1.6.0. An attacker could trigger these bugs by sending carefully crafted messages to an application. The effects of such an attack can vary depending on the application, but would usually result in a Denial of Service. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-0097 to this issue.

Alerts:
Gentoo 200404-11 2004-04-09
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:017 2004-03-03
Fedora FEDORA-2004-078 2004-03-02
Debian DSA-448-1 2004-02-22
Whitebox WBSA-2004:047-01 2004-02-18
Red Hat RHSA-2004:047-01 2004-02-18
Red Hat RHSA-2004:048-01 2004-02-13

Comments (none posted)

python: buffer overflow

Package(s):python CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0150
Created:March 10, 2004 Updated:October 11, 2004
Description: Python (versions 2.2 and 2.2.1 only) has a buffer overflow in the getaddrinfo() function which can be exploited by a malformed IPv6 address.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-458-3 2004-10-10
Gentoo 200409-03 2004-09-02
Debian DSA-458-2 2004-08-31
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:019 2004-03-09
Debian DSA-458-1 2004-03-09

Comments (none posted)

sysstat: temporary file vulnerability

Package(s):sysstat CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0107 CAN-2004-0108
Created:March 10, 2004 Updated:October 4, 2004
Description: The sysstat utility has a temporary file vulnerability which can be exploited by a local attacker to overwrite system files.
Alerts:
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:1372 2004-10-03
Gentoo 200404-04 2004-04-06
Debian DSA-460-2 2004-04-03
Trustix TSLSA-2004-0011 2004-03-16
Whitebox WBSA-2004:053-01 2004-03-10
Red Hat RHSA-2004:053-01 2004-03-10
Red Hat RHSA-2004:093-01 2004-03-10
Debian DSA-460-1 2004-03-10

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: flaws in the ISAKMP decoding routines

Package(s):tcpdump CVE #(s):CAN-2003-0989 CAN-2004-0057 CAN-2004-0055
Created:January 15, 2004 Updated:April 6, 2004
Description: George Bakos discovered flaws in the ISAKMP decoding routines of tcpdump versions prior to 3.8.1. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2003-0989 to this issue.

Jonathan Heusser discovered two additional flaws in the ISAKMP decoding routines of tcpdump versions up to and including 3.8.1. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-0057 to this issue.

Jonathan Heusser discovered a flaw in the print_attr_string function in the RADIUS decoding routines for tcpdump 3.8.1 and earlier. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-0055 to this issue.

Remote attackers could potentially exploit these issues by sending carefully-crafted packets to a victim. If the victim uses tcpdump, these packets could result in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code as the 'pcap' user.

Alerts:
Gentoo 200404-03 2004-03-31
Fedora FEDORA-2004-091 2004-03-04
SCO Group CSSA-2004-008.0 2004-03-02
Fedora FEDORA-2004-092 2004-03-02
Whitebox WBSA-2004:008-01 2004-02-12
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:1222 2004-01-31
Mandrake MDKSA-2004:008 2004-01-26
EnGarde ESA-20040119-002 2004-01-19
Debian DSA-425-1 2004-01-16
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2004.002 2004-01-16
Trustix 2004-0004 2004-01-05
SuSE SuSE-SA:2004:002 2004-01-14
Red Hat RHSA-2004:008-01 2004-01-15
Red Hat RHSA-2004:007-01 2004-01-14

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)

util-linux: information leak in the login program

Package(s):util-linux CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0080
Created:February 3, 2004 Updated:April 8, 2004
Description: The util-linux package contains a large variety of low-level system utilities that are necessary for a Linux system to function.

In some situations, the login program could use a pointer that had been freed and reallocated. This could cause unintentional data leakage.

Alerts:
Netwosix NW-2004-0010 2004-04-08
Gentoo 200404-06 2004-04-07
Fedora-Legacy FLSA:1256 2004-03-04
Whitebox WBSA-2004:056-01 2004-02-12
Red Hat RHSA-2004:056-01 2004-02-02

Comments (1 posted)

wu-ftpd: two vulnerabilities

Package(s):wu-ftpd CVE #(s):CAN-2004-0148 CAN-2004-0185
Created:March 9, 2004 Updated:March 10, 2004
Description: CAN-2004-0148 - Glenn Stewart discovered that users could bypass the directory access restrictions imposed by the restricted-gid option by changing the permissions on their home directory. On a subsequent login, when access to the user's home directory was denied, wu-ftpd would fall back to the root directory.

CAN-2004-0185 - A buffer overflow existed in wu-ftpd's code which deals with S/key authentication.

Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2004:096-01 2004-03-08
Debian DSA-457-1 2004-03-08

Comments (none posted)

Resources

March CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter

Bruce Schneier's CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter for March is out. It looks at the "V-ID card," centralized security, and the Microsoft code leak. "Any bad guys who want the code now have it, and won't be deterred by any lawyer letter. The only thing Microsoft's lawyers are doing is preventing any good guys from looking at the code, and maybe finding vulnerabilities that Microsoft can then fix. But if you realize that Microsoft's primary fear is probably other attorneys, then their move makes sense. They want to limit the number of good guys that can access the code, because they're afraid of what might be found."

Full Story (comments: 1)

Events

Computer Security Mexico 2004

Computer Security Mexico 2004 is happening May 27 and 28 in Mexico City. Click below for details and a list of keynote speakers.

Full Story (comments: none)

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

Copyright © 2004, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds