-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- __________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Center ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN Mutt Format String Vulnerability and Incompatibility March 19, 2001 19:00 GMT Number L-060 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: Mutt, a program for reading electronic mail, has a "format string" vulnerability and a GSSAPI incompatibility. PLATFORM: Red Hat Linux 5.2, 6.0, and 6.1 are vulnerable. Red Hat Linux 6.2 and 7.0 have GSSAPI incompatibilities. DAMAGE: The "format string" vulnerability could allow a compromised or malicious IMAP server to execute code on the local machine. SOLUTION: Apply the patches as directed. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is HIGH. The vulnerability has been discussed in public forums and can allow a server to execute code on the local machine. ______________________________________________________________________________ [Start Red Hat, Inc. Advisory] Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat Security Advisory Synopsis: New mutt packages fix IMAP vulnerability/incompatibility Advisory ID: RHSA-2001:029-02 Issue date: 2001-03-09 Updated on: 2001-03-13 Product: Red Hat Linux Keywords: mutt IMAP format string GSSAPI Cross references: Obsoletes: - --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Topic: New mutt packages are available. These packages fix an instance of the common 'format string' vulnerability, and correct an incompatibilty with the current errata IMAP server. It is recommended that all mutt users using Red Hat Linux upgrade to the new packages. The version of mutt shipped in Red Hat Linux 7.0 does not contain the format string vulnerability; it is merely a bugfix update. Users of Red Hat Linux 6.0 and 6.1 should use the packages for Red Hat Linux 6.2. Additionally, the packages for Red Hat Linux 6.2 have support for SSL-IMAP and GSSAPI; the new packages require the openssl enhancement errata. 2. Relevant releases/architectures: Red Hat Linux 5.2 - alpha, i386, sparc Red Hat Linux 6.2 - alpha, i386, sparc Red Hat Linux 7.0 - alpha, i386 3. Problem description: An example of a 'format string' vulnerability was present in the IMAP code in versions of mutt previous to 1.2.5. This had the effect that a compromised or malicious IMAP server could possibly execute code on the local machine. The mutt packages in Red Hat Linux 7.0 were incompatible with the errata IMAP server released for Red Hat Linux in regards to GSSAPI authentication. 4. Solution: To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run: rpm -Fvh where is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directly *only* contains the desired RPMs. Please note that this update is also available via Red Hat Network. Many people find this an easier way to apply updates. To use Red Hat Network, launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command: up2date This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate RPMs being upgraded on your system. 5. Bug IDs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info): 19326 - Updated version of Mutt (1.2) has IMAP security hole fixed 6. RPMs required: Red Hat Linux 5.2: SRPMS: ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/SRPMS/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.src.rpm alpha: ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/alpha/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.alpha.rpm i386: ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/i386/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.i386.rpm sparc: ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/sparc/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.sparc.rpm Red Hat Linux 6.2: SRPMS: ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/SRPMS/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.src.rpm alpha: ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/alpha/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.alpha.rpm i386: ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/i386/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.i386.rpm sparc: ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/sparc/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.sparc.rpm Red Hat Linux 7.0: SRPMS: ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.0/SRPMS/mutt-1.2.5i-8.7.src.rpm alpha: ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.0/alpha/mutt-1.2.5i-8.7.alpha.rpm i386: ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.0/i386/mutt-1.2.5i-8.7.i386.rpm 7. Verification: MD5 sum Package Name - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3ee2c329af45ffa655033498df170d7d 5.2/SRPMS/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.src.rpm e51c9d9f1477e85a09b5f24086330099 5.2/alpha/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.alpha.rpm 04dc128f557c060e6bca0a8d22bf2f95 5.2/i386/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.i386.rpm 1236d1b376b493810cec113c108ac039 5.2/sparc/mutt-1.2.5i-8.5.sparc.rpm a14943ad1aa6fa508a9008ce72df0ccf 6.2/SRPMS/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.src.rpm be6d299c37243967b4965562a542f583 6.2/alpha/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.alpha.rpm 362d9fcec4018f1c59ef43be0a276807 6.2/i386/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.i386.rpm 003e1a1a237e71f009e6425488b043d6 6.2/sparc/mutt-1.2.5i-8.6.sparc.rpm 909998195c995035deccf48fc6139bb6 7.0/SRPMS/mutt-1.2.5i-8.7.src.rpm 5c0775e332e70df1cba99f275490837d 7.0/alpha/mutt-1.2.5i-8.7.alpha.rpm 0d528824313b49c60a21a513e1056067 7.0/i386/mutt-1.2.5i-8.7.i386.rpm These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key is available at: http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html You can verify each package with the following command: rpm --checksig If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command: rpm --checksig --nogpg 8. References: Copyright(c) 2000, 2001 Red Hat, Inc. [End Red Hat, Inc. Advisory] _______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Red Hat, Inc. for the information contained in this bulletin. _______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CIAC is located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. CIAC is also a founding member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, a global organization established to foster cooperation and coordination among computer security teams worldwide. CIAC services are available to DOE, DOE contractors, and the NIH. CIAC can be contacted at: Voice: +1 925-422-8193 (7x24) FAX: +1 925-423-8002 STU-III: +1 925-423-2604 E-mail: ciac@ciac.org Previous CIAC notices, anti-virus software, and other information are available from the CIAC Computer Security Archive. World Wide Web: http://www.ciac.org/ (or http://ciac.llnl.gov -- they're the same machine) Anonymous FTP: ftp.ciac.org (or ciac.llnl.gov -- they're the same machine) PLEASE NOTE: Many users outside of the DOE, ESnet, and NIH computing communities receive CIAC bulletins. If you are not part of these communities, please contact your agency's response team to report incidents. Your agency's team will coordinate with CIAC. The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is a world-wide organization. A list of FIRST member organizations and their constituencies can be obtained via WWW at http://www.first.org/. This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. LAST 10 CIAC BULLETINS ISSUED (Previous bulletins available from CIAC) L-050: Microsoft Outlook VCard Unchecked Buffer Vulnerability L-051: Microsoft "Windows 2000 Event Viewer" Vulnerability L-052: Cisco IOS Software SNMP Read-Write ILMI Community String L-053: Cisco IOS Software TCP Initial Sequence Number Improvements L-054: Microsoft IIS and Exchange Malformed URL Denial of Service L-055: pcAnywhere Denial of Service, abnormal server connection L-056: The Naked Wife (W32.Naked@mm) Trojan L-057: Kerberos /tmp Root Vulnerability L-058: HPUX Sec. Vulnerability asecure L-059: Microsoft IIS WebDAV Denial of service Vulnerability -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.0 Business Edition iQCVAwUBOrZrNLnzJzdsy3QZAQFcagP6AtJ0FlNKsx9eCRqesdQbrvth78i3GUbW wBl+PT21IvVG0Kd8Nu2v0fnnQVJo+o9FIzp/BTIOJG3V8GTG+Ge+x2DXEE6lvGAa JUoXtetxq61J99EQrNkPin78VVaSFC+NJuwILjRxurlL/of0RY9lzArT+bUXFbA3 YaNqjo1iJOs= =Qm5Z -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----