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Security

That OpenSSL Worm

This worm has been referred to by at least four different names: Apache/mod_ssl worm, linux.slapper.worm, bugtraq.c worm and Modap worm.

On Friday September 13th the first reports appeared on Bugtraq of an active worm exploiting the OpenSSL buffer overflow vulnerability reported at the end of July. The next day CERT issued Advisory CA-2002-27 Apache/mod_ssl Worm.

Compromise by the Apache/mod_ssl worm indicates that a remote attacker can execute arbitrary code as the apache user on the victim system. It may be possible for an attacker to subsequently leverage a local privilege escalation exploit in order to gain root access to the victim system. Furthermore, the DDoS capabilities included in the Apache/mod_ssl worm allow victim systems to be used as platforms to attack other systems.

By Sunday September 15th, at 17:00 GMT, F-Secure Corporation reported 13,000 infected servers out of "over 1,000,000 active OpenSSL installations in the public web." Updates to fix the problem, including backports to earlier versions of OpenSSL, had been available for over a month from the OpenSSL project, Caldera, Conectiva, Debian, EnGarde, Eridani, Gentoo, Mandrake, OpenPKG, Red Hat, SuSE, Trustix and Yellow Dog.

SecurityFocus has completed and released a full analysis (PDF format) of the worm in addition to their initial incident Alert (PDF format). F-Secure is maintaining a "Virus Description" of this worm with lots of interesting information.

The first reports in the press appeared Friday, the day the worm was first seen, in CNET and Network World Fusion. The next day CNET put up another story with additional information. By Monday evening both the Register and TechWeb had published their reports on events to date. On Tuesday Network World Fusion reported that the worm has infected at least 30,000 Linux Apache Web servers.

Also, see this other article from TechWeb on the worm:

According to Dan Ingevaldson, team lead of the X-Force R&D division at ISS, the first version may be a test to see how well the worm works before more deadlier versions surface. "Unlike Code Red and Nimda, where virus writers didn't have immediate access to the source code, the source code for this worm is already widely public," he says. "I'd expect new versions to start to surface."

RUS-CERT has made available a tool to remotely detect vulnerable servers. However, Eric Rescorla has observed behavior different from what that tool expects.

In the unlikely event that you haven't already, applying the appropriate OpenSSL update might be a very good thing to do before reading any further.

Comments (3 posted)

Brief items

Mozilla bug leaks Web surfing data (CNET)

CNET has a short article about a little privacy bug in Mozilla's handling of referers. "The bug reveals the URL of the page someone is viewing to the Web server of the site last visited. This allows a Web server to track where people go after they leave the site, even if the next Web address comes from a bookmark or is manually typed into the browser." If you are using a Gecko-based browser, you can see the bug in action on this page.

Comments (none posted)

September CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter

Bruce Schneier's CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter for September is out. It looks at possible new attack strategies for algorithms like AES, the Word97 vulnerability, and more. "We're seeing more and more of this: vulnerabilities in products that are no longer supported. When the SNMP vulnerabilities were published earlier this year, many products with the vulnerability were no longer supported. Some were made by companies no longer in business."

Full Story (comments: none)

Security reports

ht://Check cross-site scripting problems

Ulf Harnhammar reports potential cross-site scripting problems in ht://Check version 1.1, and possibly earlier versions as well. "It doesn't remove HTML tags before displaying the crawled web servers' "Server:" headers and other information."

ht://Check is a link checker derived from ht://Dig. It can retrieve information through HTTP/1.1 and store it in a MySQL database so that after a "crawl", ht://Check can return broken links, anchors not found, content-types, and HTTP status codes summaries. A PHP interface lets the user to query and view the results directly via the web

Full Story (comments: none)

xbreaky symlink vulnerability

Marco van Berkum reports a symlink vulnerability in the xbreaky breakout game for X. If xbreaky is installed as suid, the vulnerabilty can be abused by any user to overwrite any file on the filesystem. Distributions which include xbreaky may or may not install it suid root.

Full Story (comments: none)

MIMEDefang version 2.21 scans fragmented mail messages

The folks at Roaring Penguin Software have released, under the GPL, version 2.21 of MIMEDefang to deal with this Outlook Express based attack to bypass SMTP-based content filter engines.

MIMEDefang is a program for inspecting and modifying e-mail messages as they pass through your mail relay. MIMEDefang is written in Perl, and its filter actions are expressed in Perl, so it's highly flexible.

A patched version of MIME-Tools that addresses the problem is also avilable as well as version 1.2-F17 of Roaring Penguin's commercial CanIt anti-spam solution based on MIMEDefang 2.21.

Full Story (comments: none)

(Proprietary product) Race conditions in BRU Workstation 17.0

A race condition in TolisGroup's BRU Workstation 17.0 can be used to clobber any system file." According to this followup post, TolisGroup have responded with confirmation of an update for a race condition reported previously, and an estimated date for a new update for this one.

Full Story (comments: none)

(Proprietary product) File disclosure vulnerability in DB4Web application server

Stefan Bagdohn reports a file disclosure vulnerability in the DB4Web high-performance application server from Guardeonic Solutions AG. The DB4Web team has already provided an update which is available from here.

Full Story (comments: none)

New vulnerabilities

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in XFree86

Package(s):xf86 xfree86 CVE #(s):
Created:September 18, 2002 Updated:October 27, 2002
Description: XFree86 version 4.2.1 fixes a problem in Xlib that made it possible to execute arbitrary code in privileged clients. Other libraries are dynamically loaded by libX11.so as needed. When linking against a setuid program, arbitrary code could be loaded and executed from a pathname controlled by the user.
Alerts:
Gentoo xfree-20021024 2002-10-24
Conectiva CLA-2002:533 2002-10-16
Conectiva CLA-2002:529 2002-10-03
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:032 2002-09-18

Comments (none posted)

Cross-site scripting vulnerability in Konqueror for KDE 3.0.3

Package(s):kdelibs CVE #(s):
Created:September 17, 2002 Updated:November 18, 2002
Description: Konqueror for KDE 3.0.3, and earlier versions, is subject to this cross-site scripting vulnerability. Since the problem is in kdelibs, any other application which uses the KHTML renderer is also vulnerable. Javascript code running in one frame can access other frames which should be inaccessible. The problem is fixed in kdelibs 3.0.3a.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-047.0 2002-11-15
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:064 2002-10-09
Conectiva CLA-2002:525 2002-09-20
Debian DSA-167-1 2002-09-16

Comments (2 posted)

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities in purity

Package(s):purity CVE #(s):
Created:September 17, 2002 Updated:September 26, 2002
Description: It seems that the "purity" game isn't entirely pure itself - a couple of buffer overflows have been found which could be exploited to gain access to the "games" group on Debian systems. Rather than face the prospect of people tampering with their nethack scores, the Debian Project released the first upgrade closing the vulnerability.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-166-1 2002-09-13

Comments (none posted)

Updated vulnerabilities

Denial of service vulnerability in amavis

Package(s):amavis CVE #(s):
Created:September 11, 2002 Updated:September 11, 2002
Description: AMaViS is vulnerable to a denial of service attack via maliciously crafted input. Patches exist for AMaViS, but the recommended solution is to upgrade to the (actively developed) amavis-perl tool. See this advisory for details.
Alerts:
Gentoo amavis-20020905 2002-09-05

Comments (none posted)

Heap corruption vulnerability in at

Package(s):at at, sudo, xchat CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0004
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:May 15, 2003
Description: The at command has a potentially exploitable heap corruption bug. (First LWN report:  January 17th).
Alerts:
EnGarde ESA-20030515-015 2003-05-15
Yellow Dog YDU-20020127-9 2002-01-27
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:003 2001-01-16
Slackware sl-1011706104 2002-01-22
Red Hat RHSA-2002:015-15 2002-02-07
Red Hat RHSA-2002:015-13 2002-01-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:007 2002-01-18
Debian DSA-102-2 2002-01-18
Debian DSA-102-1 2002-01-16

Comments (none posted)

bind buffer overflow vulnerability in DNS resolver libraries

Package(s):bind glibc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0651 CAN-2002-0684
Created:July 8, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: The BIND 4.9.8-OW2 patch and BIND 4.9.9 release (and thus 4.9.9-OW1) include fixes for a libc related vulnerability which does not affect Linux. Updates from the Internet Software Consortium (ISC) are available from here.

No release or branch of Openwall GNU/*/Linux (Owl) is known to be affected, due to Olaf Kirch's fixes for this problem getting into the GNU C library more than two years ago.

Unfortunatly that does not mean that Linux systems are not vulnerable. Similar code, without Olaf Firch's fixes, is in the glibc getnetbyXXX functions. These functions are described in the SuSE alert as " used by very few applications only, such as ifconfig and ifuser, which makes exploits less likely."

CERT Advisory: CA-2002-19 Buffer Overflow in Multiple DNS Resolver Libraries

CAN-2002-0651
CAN-2002-0684

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

Comments (1 posted)

Input validation vulnerability in cacti

Package(s):cacti CVE #(s):
Created:September 11, 2002 Updated:September 11, 2002
Description: Cacti is a PHP front end to rrdtool; it assists in the creation of plots from a MySQL database. This tool does not properly validate all input, leading to a remote code execution vulnerability in certain, limited conditions. See this Bugtraq posting for details.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-164-1 2002-09-10

Comments (none posted)

Potential unauthorized root access vulnerability in dietlibc

Package(s):dietlibc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0391
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:December 5, 2002
Description: Felix von Leitner, discovered a potential division by zero bug in code derived from the SunRPC library with is used in dietlibc, a libc optimized for small size. The bug could be exploited to gain unauthorized root access to software linking to dietlibc.

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

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-055.0 2002-12-04
Debian DSA-146-2 2002-08-08
Debian DSA-146-1 2002-08-08

Comments (none posted)

Ethereal 0.9.6 fixes potential remote code execution vulnerability

Package(s):ethereal CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0834 CAN-2002-0821 CAN-2002-0822
Created:September 4, 2002 Updated:September 11, 2002
Description: Ethereal 0.9.6 was released on August 20, 2002 fixing a serious buffer overflow vulnerability in the ISIS protocol dissector in Ethereal 0.9.5 and earlier versions.
It may be possible to make Ethereal crash or hang by injecting a purposefully malformed packet onto the wire, or by convincing someone to read a malformed packet trace file. It may be possible to make Ethereal run arbitrary code by exploiting the buffer and pointer problems.

Ethereal 0.9.4 has multiple buffer overflow and other vulnerabilities hat are best delt with by upgrading to 0.9.6. These vulnerabilities may allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code.

Updating now, rather than later, is recommended.

Alerts:
Debian DSA-162-1 2002-09-06
Eridani ERISA-2002:040 2002-09-03
Gentoo ethereal-20020830 2002-08-30
Red Hat RHSA-2002:169-13 2002-08-28

Comments (none posted)

Ethereal buffer overflow, infinite loop and memory management vulnerabilities

Package(s):ethereal CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0012 CAN-2002-0013 CAN-2002-0353 CAN-2002-0401 CAN-2002-0402 CAN-2002-0403 CAN-2002-0404
Created:June 12, 2002 Updated:October 27, 2002
Description: Ethereal 0.9.4 was released on May 19, 2002 fixing four potential security issues in Ethereal 0.9.3:
  • The SMB dissector could potentially dereference a NULL pointer in two cases.
  • The X11 dissector could potentially overflow a buffer while parsing keysyms.
  • The DNS dissector could go into an infinite loop while reading a malformed packet.
  • The GIOP dissector could potentially allocate large amounts of memory.

No known exploits exist "in the wild" at the present time for any of these issues.

Ethereal 0.9.2 has several packet handling vulnerabilities that are best avoided by upgrading to 0.9.4. The PROTOS test suite found some flaws in SNMP and LDAP protocols support. Malformed packets could also crash ethereal 0.9.2 due to a ASN.1 zero-length g_malloc problem. The zlib "double free" vulnerability was addressed by the updates for that bug from many distributors.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-037.0 2002-10-24
Conectiva CLA-2002:505 2002-07-04
Yellow Dog YDU-20020606-7 2002-06-06
Red Hat RHSA-2002:088-06 2002-06-04
Eridani ERISA-2002:023 2002-06-06

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)

GNU fileutils race condition

Package(s):fileutils ucdsnmp CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0435
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:May 16, 2003
Description: A race condition in rm may cause the root user to delete the whole filesystem. The problem exists in the version of rm in fileutils 4.1 stable and 4.1.6 development version. A patch is available. (First LWN report: May 2).
Alerts:
Immunix IMNX-2003-7+-010-01 2003-05-16
Red Hat RHSA-2003:015-05 2003-02-12
Trustix 2002-0052 2002-06-06
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:012 2002-04-08
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:031 2002-05-16
SCO Group CSSA-2002-018.1 2002-05-13

Comments (none posted)

Buffer overflow vulnerability in the Jabber plug-in module for gaim

Package(s):gaim CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0384 CAN-2002-0377
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:September 11, 2002
Description: gaim versions prior to 0.58 contained a buffer overflow in the Jabber plug-in module. The problem is fixed in gaim 0.59 which is available here. "Gaim is an instant messaging client written in GTK and is based on the published TOC messaging protocol from AOL."
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:054-1 2002-09-05
Yellow Dog YDU-20020810-4 2002-08-10
Red Hat RHSA-2002:107-11 2002-08-05

Comments (none posted)

Potential remote root exploit in glibc

Package(s):glibc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0391
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:June 30, 2003
Description: Felix von Leitner, discovered a potential division by zero bug in code derived from the SunRPC library which is used in glibc.This bug could be exploited to gain unauthorized root access to software linking to glibc.

Updating as soon as practical is a good idea.

Because SunRPC-derived XDR libraries are used by a variety of vendors in a variety of applications, this defect may lead to a number of differing security problems. Exploiting this vulnerability will lead to denial of service, execution of arbitrary code, or the disclosure of sensitive information.

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

Alerts:
Debian DSA-333-1 2003-06-27
Conectiva CLA-2002:535 2002-10-29
Trustix 2002-0070 2002-10-17
EnGarde ESA-20021003-021 2002-10-03
Gentoo glibc-20020927 2002-09-27
Gentoo dietlibc-20020927 2002-09-27
Debian DSA-149-2 2002-09-26
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:061 2002-09-23
Gentoo glibc-20020905 2002-09-05
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:031 2002-08-30
Trustix 2002-0067 2002-08-13
Eridani ERISA-2002:036 2002-08-13
Red Hat RHSA-2002:166-07 2002-08-12
Debian DSA-149-1 2002-08-13

Comments (none posted)

Buffer overflow in groff

Package(s):groff CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0003
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:December 9, 2002
Description: The groff package has a buffer overflow vulnerability; if it is used with the print system, it is conceivably exploitable remotely.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-057.0 2002-12-06
Gentoo groff-20021019 2002-10-19
Yellow Dog YDU-20020127-11 2002-01-27
Trustix 2002-0020 2002-01-18
Red Hat RHSA-2002:004-06 2002-01-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:012 2002-02-07

Comments (none posted)

HylaFAX 4.1.3 fixes multiple vulnerabilities

Package(s):hylafax CVE #(s):CAN-2001-1034
Created:July 30, 2002 Updated:October 9, 2002
Description: The HylaFAX team has released version 4.1.3 fixing denial of service, elevated system privilege and possible remote code execution vulnerabilities.

HylaFAX is a mature (est. 1991) enterprise-class open-source software package for sending and receiving facsimiles as well as for sending alpha-numeric pages. It runs on a wide variety of UNIX-like platforms including Linux, BSD (including Mac OS X), SunOS and Solaris, SCO, IRIX, AIX, and HP-UX.
Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:035 2002-10-04
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:055 2002-08-28
Debian DSA-148-1 2002-08-12

Comments (none posted)

UW imapd remotely exploitable buffer overflow

Package(s):imap CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0379
Created:June 5, 2002 Updated:December 20, 2002
Description: UW imapd versions 2000c and prior allow remote authenticated users to execute code via a buffer overflow. A malicious user can craft a request to run commands on the server under their UID and GID. (First LWN report: May 23).
Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:048 2002-12-20
Trustix 2002-0054 2002-06-06
EnGarde ESA-20020607-013 2002-06-07
Yellow Dog YDU-20020606-1 2002-06-06
Red Hat RHSA-2002:092-11 2002-05-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:034 2002-05-27
Eridani ERISA-2002:018 2002-05-25
Conectiva CLA-2002:487 2002-05-24
SCO Group CSSA-2002-021.0 2002-05-15

Comments (2 posted)

KDE 3.0.3 fixes X.509 certificate check vulnerability

Package(s):kde CVE #(s):
Created:September 4, 2002 Updated:September 11, 2002
Description: The SSL implementation used by previous version of KDE accepted, without alerting the user, any X.509 certificate signed by any entity under specific conditions. This bug allows "for undetected MITM attacks ("man in the mittle"), which could compromise an encrypted HTTPS session."
Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:058 2002-09-09
Conectiva CLA-2002:519 2002-08-29

Comments (none posted)

Kerberos 5 unauthorized root access to KDC host vulnerability

Package(s):krb5 CVE #(s):
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:October 29, 2002
Description: A bug in the Kerberos 5 remote administration service, "kadmind", could be exploited to gain unauthorized root access to a KDC host. It is believed that the attacker needs to be able to authenticate to the kadmin daemon for this attack to be successful.

Felix von Leitner, discovered this potential division by zero bug in code derived from the SunRPC library which is used in many places, including the Kerberos 5 administration system.

Updating now is recommended.

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

Alerts:
Gentoo 200210-011 2002-10-28
Conectiva CLA-2002:515 2002-08-07
Debian DSA-143-1 2002-08-05

Comments (none posted)

LPRng accepts jobs from any host.

Package(s):LPRng CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0378
Created:June 12, 2002 Updated:October 31, 2002
Description: Matthew Caron pointed out that LPRng's default configuration accepts job submissions from any host.

This could be an especially annoying vulnerability for adminstrators with systems exposed to the general public.

Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:040 2002-10-31
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:042 2002-07-04
Red Hat RHSA-2002:089-07 2002-06-09

Comments (none posted)

Cross-site scripting vulnerability in mhonarc

Package(s):mhonarc CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0738 CAN-2002-1307 CAN-2002-1388
Created:September 11, 2002 Updated:January 3, 2003
Description: Mhonarc is an HTML formatter for electronic mail; it can be vulnerable to cross-site scripting problems when presented with maliciously crafted messages. This problem is fixed in mhonarc version 2.5.3, but it is not clear that all possible vulnerabilities have been fixed. See the Debian advisory below for information on how to disable text/html attachment support in mhonarc, which may be a more secure solution.
Alerts:
Debian DSA-221-1 2003-01-03
Debian DSA-199-1 2002-11-19
Debian DSA-163-1 2002-09-09

Comments (none posted)

PHP Remote Compromise/DOS Vulnerability

Package(s):mod_php4 CVE #(s):
Created:July 22, 2002 Updated:February 18, 2003
Description: PHP 4.2.0 and 4.2.1 have an error in the handling of POST requests which can lead to the corruption of memory, and the usual bad consequences. According to this alert, the vulnerability can only be used for denial of service on x86 systems - there is no way to get it to run exploit code. SPARC/Solaris systems are apparently vulnerable to full remote compromise.

According to the CERT Advisory, almost every Linux distributor, it seems, ships older (and thus not vulnerable) versions of PHP.

Note that, sometimes, systems thought to be safe from remote compromise turn out to be vulnerable to a modified attack, so x86 users should not relax too much. The solution, for those systems with PHP 4.2.0 or 4.2.1 installed, is to upgrade to PHP 4.2.2.

For more information see the alert from the discover of the vulnerability, Stefan Esser of e-matters GmbH, or the security advisory from the php team.

CERT Advisory: CA-2002-21 Vulnerability in PHP

Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2003:0009 2003-02-18

Comments (1 posted)

Mozilla XMLHttpRequest file disclosure vulnerability

Package(s):mozilla CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0354
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:October 18, 2002
Description: This XMLHttpRequest security bug impacts all Mozilla-based browsers. "The bug is found in versions of Mozilla from 0.9.7 to 0.9.9 on various operating system platforms, and in Netscape versions 6.1 and higher." (First LWN report: May 2).
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:192-13 2002-10-09
Red Hat RHSA-2002:079-13 2002-05-13
Conectiva CLA-2002:490 2002-05-29

Comments (none posted)

String format bug in pam_ldap logging

Package(s):nss_ldap CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0374
Created:June 5, 2002 Updated:October 29, 2002
Description: The nss_ldap package includes the pam_ldap module for authenticating a user with an LDAP database. Pam_ldap versions prior to 144 have a string format bug in the logging mechanism.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-041.0 2002-10-28
Yellow Dog YDU-20020606-2 2002-06-06
Red Hat RHSA-2002:084-17 2002-05-26
Eridani ERISA-2002:019 2002-05-28

Comments (none posted)

OpenSSL remotely-exploitable buffer overflow vulnerabilities

Package(s):OpenSSL CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0655 CAN-2002-0656 CAN-2002-0657 CAN-2002-0659
Created:July 30, 2002 Updated:September 24, 2002
Description: Four remotely-exploitable buffer overflows were found in OpenSSL versions 0.9.7 and 0.9.6d and earlier by a DARPA sponsored security audit. Both client and server applications are affected. The vulnerabilities are described in this security alert from the OpenSSL team.

A nasty exploit for one of the vulnerabilities is described in CERT Advisory CA-2002-27 Apache/mod_ssl Worm.

Compromise by the Apache/mod_ssl worm indicates that a remote attacker can execute arbitrary code as the apache user on the victim system. It may be possible for an attacker to subsequently leverage a local privilege escalation exploit in order to gain root access to the victim system. Furthermore, the DDoS capabilities included in the Apache/mod_ssl worm allow victim systems to be used as platforms to attack other systems.

If you haven't already, applying an update is a very good thing to do today.

Mitel Networks has an update available which closes this vulnerabilty for their SME Server software.

CERT Advisory CA-2002-23 Multiple Vulnerabilities In OpenSSL

Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:033 2002-09-19
Debian DSA-136-2 2002-09-15
Yellow Dog YDU-20020810-1 2002-08-10
Conectiva CLA-2002:516 2002-08-08
EnGarde ESA-20020807-020 2002-08-07
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:046-1 2002-08-06
Red Hat RHSA-2002:160-21 2002-08-05
Eridani ERISA-2002:034 2002-08-06
Yellow Dog YDU-20020801-3 2002-08-01
SCO Group CSSA-2002-033.0 2002-07-31
Gentoo openssl-20020730 2002-07-30
Eridani ERISA-2002:033 2002-07-30
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:027 2002-07-30
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:046 2002-07-30
Conectiva CLA-2002:513 2002-07-31
Red Hat RHSA-2002:155-11 2002-07-29
Trustix 2002-0063 2002-07-29
OpenPKG OpenPKG-SA-2002.008 2002-07-30
EnGarde ESA-20020730-019 2002-07-30
Debian DSA-136-1 2002-07-30

Comments (none posted)

Safemode vulnerability in PHP

Package(s):PHP CVE #(s):CAN-2001-1246
Created:August 20, 2002 Updated:October 9, 2002
Description: PHP versions 4.0.5 through 4.1.0 fail to properly cleanse a parameter to the mail() function, allowing arbitrary command execution by local and (possibly) remote attackers.
Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:036 2002-10-04
Debian DSA-168-1 2002-09-18
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:059 2002-09-10
Red Hat RHSA-2002:102-26 2002-08-19

Comments (none posted)

Remotely exploitable vulnerability in pine

Package(s):pine CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0014
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:November 27, 2002
Description: Pine has an unpleasant vulnerability in URL handling vulnerability which can lead to command execution by remote attackers. (First LWN report:  January 17th).

This vulnerability is remotely exploitable; updating is a good idea.

Note: If an update isn't yet available for your distribution, setting enable-msg-view-urls to "off" in pine's setup will avoid the vulnerability. (Thanks to Greg Herlein).

Alerts:
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:046 2002-11-25
Yellow Dog YDU-20020127-8 2002-01-27
Slackware sl-1010936849 2002-01-13
Red Hat RHSA-2002:009-06 2002-01-14
EnGarde ESA-20020114-002 2002-01-14
Conectiva CLA-2002:460 2002-01-31

Comments (none posted)

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities in PostgreSQL

Package(s):PostgreSQL CVE #(s):
Created:August 21, 2002 Updated:January 27, 2003
Description: PostgreSQL 7.2.2 has been released in response to a number of buffer overrun vulnerabilities which have been identified recently. "...it should be noted that these vulnerabilities are only critical on 'open' or 'shared' systems, as they require the ability to be able to connect to the database before they can be exploited."

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities fixed include those reported by "Sir Mordred The Traitor" in the cash_words, repeat, and lpad and rpad functions.

Alerts:
Yellow Dog YDU-20030127-5 2003-01-27
Red Hat RHSA-2003:001-16 2003-01-14
Red Hat RHSA-2003:010-10 2003-01-14
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:038 2002-10-21
Trustix 2002-0071 2002-10-17
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:062 2002-10-01
Conectiva CLA-2002:524 2002-09-19
Debian DSA-165-1 2002-09-12
Gentoo postgresql-20020826 2002-08-26

Comments (none posted)

PXE server denial of service vulnerability

Package(s):pxe CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0835
Created:September 4, 2002 Updated:November 11, 2002
Description: The PXE server can be crashed using DHCP packets from some Voice Over IP (VOIP) phones. Maliciously formed DHCP packets could be used by a remote attacker to effect a denial of service attack.

The PXE package contains the PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) server and code needed for Linux to boot from a boot disk image on a Linux PXE server.
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-044.0 2002-11-11
Eridani ERISA-2002:041 2002-09-03
Red Hat RHSA-2002:162-12 2002-08-30

Comments (none posted)

Local arbitrary code execution vulnerability in Python

Package(s):python CVE #(s):CAN-2002-1119
Created:August 28, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: Zack Weinberg discovered that os._execvpe from os.py uses a predictable name which could lead to execution of arbitrary code. According to the Debian advisory, the problem was present in Python versions 1.5, 2.1 and 2.2.

CAN-2002-1119

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

Comments (none posted)

Sharutils potential privilege escalation using uudecode

Package(s):sharutils CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0178
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:October 31, 2002
Description: According to the CVE entry, "uudecode, as available in the sharutils package before 4.2.1, does not check whether the filename of the uudecoded file is a pipe or symbolic link, which could allow attackers to overwrite files or execute commands." (First LWN report: May 16).
Alerts:
Gentoo 200210-012 2002-10-30
SCO Group CSSA-2002-040.0 2002-10-28
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:052 2002-08-14
Yellow Dog YDU-20020522-4 2002-05-22
Red Hat RHSA-2002:065-13 2002-05-14
Eridani ERISA-2002:014 2002-05-16

Comments (none posted)

Multiple vulnerabilities fixed in Squid-2.4.STABLE7

Package(s):squid CVE #(s):
Created:July 8, 2002 Updated:November 15, 2002
Description: Here is the security advisory for the Squid proxy server reporting several vulnerabilities in versions up to and including 2.4.STABLE7. Several of the bugs are believed to allow remote code execution.

The security advisory lists the following changes:

  • Several bugfixes and cleanup of the Gopher client, both to correct some security issues and to make Squid properly render certain Gopher menus.
  • Security fixes in how Squid parses FTP directory listings into HTML
  • FTP data channels are now sanity checked to match the address of the requested FTP server. This to prevent theft or injection of data. See the new ftp_sanitycheck directive if this sanity check is not desired.
  • The MSNT auth helper has been updated to v2.0.3+fixes for buffer overflow security issues found in this helper.
  • A security issue in how Squid forwards proxy authentication credentials has been fixed
Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-046.0 2002-11-14
Eridani ERISA-2002:031 2002-07-26
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:044 2002-07-17
Trustix 2002-0062 2002-07-15
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:025 2002-07-09
Conectiva CLA-2002:506 2002-07-05

Comments (none posted)

Tcl/Tk local root vulnerability

Package(s):tcltk expect CVE #(s):CAN-2001-1374 CAN-2001-1375
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:September 24, 2002
Description: Tcl/Tk searches for its libraries in the current working directory before other directories. A local user could execute arbitrary code by inserting a Trojan horse library in the current working directory.

Versions of the expect application prior to 5.32, search for its libraries in /var/tmp before searching in other directories. A local user could gain root privleges by inserting a Trojan horse library in /var/tmp and then getting the root user to run mkpasswd.

Alerts:
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:060 2002-09-23
Eridani ERISA-2002:037 2002-08-14
Red Hat RHSA-2002:148-06 2002-08-12

Comments (none posted)

Malformed NFS packet buffer overflow vulnerability in tcpdump

Package(s):tcpdump CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0380
Created:June 5, 2002 Updated:October 9, 2002
Description: A buffer overflow in tcpdump can be triggered by a bad NFS packet when tracing the network. Unmodified tcpdump versions 3.6.2 and earlier are vulnerable.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:094-16 2002-10-04
Yellow Dog YDU-20020606-3 2002-06-06
Trustix 2002-0055 2002-06-05
SCO Group CSSA-2002-025.0 2002-06-04
Conectiva CLA-2002:491 2002-06-05
Red Hat RHSA-2002:094-08 2002-05-29
Eridani ERISA-2002:020 2002-05-30

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:
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)

Multiple vulnerabilities in SNMP implementations

Package(s):ucdsnmp ucd-snmp CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0012 CAN-2002-0013
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:September 17, 2002
Description: Most SNMP implementations out there have a variety of buffer overflow vulnerabilities and should be upgraded at first opportunity. See this CERT advisory for more. (First LWN report: February 14).
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:036-26 2002-09-12
Yellow Dog YDU-20020211-1 2002-02-11
Red Hat RHSA-2001:163-20 2002-02-12
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:014 2002-02-15
Debian DSA-111-2 2002-02-28
Debian DSA-111-1 2002-02-14
Conectiva CLA-2002:462 2002-02-14
SCO Group CSSA-2002-004.0 2002-01-22

Comments (none posted)

Local root vulnerability in chfn

Package(s):util-linux CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0638
Created:July 30, 2002 Updated:October 31, 2002
Description: chfn (change finger information) is one of the utilities in the util-linux package. The BindView RAZOR Team has discovered a local root vulnerability in chfn which is described in the Bindview Advisory.

Under certain conditions, "a carefully crafted attack sequence can be performed to exploit a complex file locking and modification race present in this utility, and, as a result, alter /etc/passwd to escalate privileges in the system." The conditions include a password file, /etc/passwd, over 4 kilobytes and locating the attacker's account record in any but the last 4 kB chunk of the file.

CERT/CC Vulnerability Note VU#405955 util-linux package vulnerable to privilege escalation when "ptmptmp" file is not removed properly when using "chfn" utility

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-043.0 2002-10-29
Conectiva CLA-2002:523 2002-09-12
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:047 2002-08-08
Yellow Dog YDU-20020801-4 2002-08-01
Trustix 2002-0064 2002-07-30
Red Hat RHSA-2002:132-14 2002-07-29
Eridani ERISA-2002:032 2002-07-29

Comments (none posted)

webalizer: reverse DNS buffer overflow vulnerability

Package(s):webalizer CVE #(s):
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:January 27, 2003
Description: The cause is a buffer overflow bug. This one sounds nasty. If reverse DNS lookups are enabled in webalizer, "an attacker with control over the victims DNS may spoof responses thus triggering a buffer overflow, potentially leading to a root compromise." Webalizer 2.01-10 "fixes this and a few other buglets that have been discovered in the last month or so". (First LWN report:  April 18th, 2002).
Alerts:
Yellow Dog YDU-20030127-4 2003-01-27
Red Hat RHSA-2002:254-05 2002-12-04
SCO Group CSSA-2002-036.0 2002-10-22
EnGarde ESA-20020423-009 2002-04-23
Conectiva CLA-2002:476 2002-04-26

Comments (none posted)

Webmin/Usermin vulnerabilities

Package(s):webmin CVE #(s):
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:January 10, 2003
Description: Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Webmin has cross-site scripting and session ID spoofing vulnerabilities which are fixed in the May 6, 2002 release of version 0.970. (First LWN report: May 9).

This one is scary. The session ID spoofing vulnerability allows the "possibility that arbitrary commands may be executed with root privileges." Upgrading is strongly recommended. At a minimum avoid the "preconditions for a successful exploit" by disabling password timeouts under Webmin->Configuration->Authentication.

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2003-002.0 2003-01-09
Yellow Dog YDU-20020522-7 2002-05-22
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:033 2002-05-21

Comments (1 posted)

Multiple vulnerabilities in wordtrans

Package(s):wordtrans CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0837
Created:September 11, 2002 Updated:February 4, 2003
Description: The "wordtrans" interface to multilingual dictionaries suffers from input validation and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities; versions through 1.1pre8 are vulnerable. See this Guardent advisory for details.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:188-08 2002-09-05

Comments (none posted)

Problems with libgtop_daemon

Package(s):wuftpd libgtop CVE #(s):
Created:May 21, 2002 Updated:May 7, 2003
Description: The libgtop_daemon package is a GNOME program which makes system information available remotely. LWN reported the remotely exploitable format string and buffer overflow vulnerabilities in that package on December 6th. On November 28th disabling the libgtop_daemon on systems where it is running until an update is available.

Many Linux systems do not run libgtop by default, but applying the update is a good idea anyway.

Alerts:
Debian DSA-301-1 2003-05-07
Mandrake MDKSA-2001:094 2001-12-19
Debian DSA-098-1 2002-01-09
Conectiva CLA-2002:448 2002-01-03

Comments (1 posted)

Wwwoffle remote privilege escalation vulnerability

Package(s):wwwoffle CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0818
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:October 1, 2003
Description: The wwwoffle web proxy incorrectly processes HTTP PUT and POST requests with negative Content Length values. "It is believed that an attacker could exploit this bug to gain remote wwwrun access to the system wwwoffled is running on."

CAN-2002-0818

Alerts:
SCO Group CSSA-2002-048.0 2002-11-18
Debian DSA-144-1 2002-08-06
SuSE SuSE-SA:2002:029 2002-08-01

Comments (none posted)

xchat IC server based dns query vulnerability

Package(s):xchat CVE #(s):CAN-2002-0382
Created:June 5, 2002 Updated:September 24, 2002
Description: A malicious IRC server may return a response to a /dns query that executes arbitrary commands with the privileges of the user running XChat. Versions of XChat prior to 1.8.9 are vulnerable.
Alerts:
Conectiva CLA-2002:526 2002-09-23
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:051 2002-08-14
Yellow Dog YDU-20020606-5 2002-06-06
Eridani ERISA-2002:021 2002-06-05
Red Hat RHSA-2002:097-08 2002-06-04

Comments (none posted)

Denial of service vulnerability in xinetd

Package(s):xinetd CVE #(s):
Created:August 14, 2002 Updated:December 3, 2002
Description: A file descriptor leak into services started from xinetd may be used, by programs it stats, to crash xinetd. Xinetd is a replacement for the BSD derived inetd.
Alerts:
Red Hat RHSA-2002:196-19 2002-12-02
Red Hat RHSA-2002:196-09 2002-10-14
Mandrake MDKSA-2002:053 2002-08-26
Gentoo xinetd-20020814 2002-08-14
Debian DSA-151-1 2002-08-13

Comments (none posted)

Resources

Linux Security Week and Advisory Watch

The September 16th Linux Security Week and September 13th Linux Advisory Watch newsletters from LinuxSecurity.com are available.

Comments (none posted)

chkrootkit 0.37 is now available

Klaus Steding-Jessen announces the release of chkrootkit version 0.37. chkrootkit is a tool to locally check for signs of a rootkit.

Well worth a look, especially if you arn't familiar with this useful tool.

Full Story (comments: none)

Four final computer security guidelines availble from NIST

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces the final publication of four computer security guidelines available from here.

The four NIST Special Publications are:

  1. Security for Telecommuting and Broadband Communications
  2. Security Guide for Interconnecting Information Technology Systems
  3. Procedures for Handling Security Patches
  4. Use of the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Vulnerability Naming Scheme.

Full Story (comments: none)

Choosing passwords: random, mnemonic phrases and more

Folks at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory have done a good study on different password selection approaches which is summarized in two papers:
  1. The Memorability and Security of Passwords - Some Empirical Results by Jianxin Yan, Alan Blackwell, Ross Anderson and Alasdair Grant (PDF format)
  2. A Note on Proactive Password Checking by Jianxin Jeff Yan (PDF format)

Crispin Cowan also has some interesting comments on the conclutions reached by the study.

Comments (none posted)

Events

Final Speakers Announced for HiverCon 2002

HiverCon 2002 is scheduled for November 26th and 27th, 2002 in Dublin Ireland.

In total ten speakers have been announced as confirmed to speak at HiverCon 2002. The industry recognized names will be presenting papers on a myriad of information security topics, introducing new tools and research, as well as discussing newly highlighted security problems and solutions.

Full Story (comments: none)

Upcoming Security Events

Date Event Location
September 19 - 20, 2002SEcurity of Communications on the Internet 2002(SECI'02)Tunis, Tunisia
September 23 - 26, 2002New Security Paradigms Workshop 2002(The Chamberlain Hotel)Hampton, Virginia, USA
September 23 - 25, 2002University of Idaho Workshop on Computer Forensics(University of Idaho)Moscow, Idaho, USA
September 27 - 29, 2002ToorCon 2002(San Diego Concourse)San Diego, CA, USA
October 16 - 18, 2002Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection 2002(RAID 2002)Zurich, Switzerland
November 26 - 27, 2002HiverCon 2002(Burlington Hotel)Dublin, Ireland

For additional security-related events, included training courses (which we don't list above) and events further in the future, check out Security Focus' calendar, one of the primary resources we use for building the above list. To submit an event directly to us, please send a plain-text message to lwn@lwn.net.

Comments (none posted)

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