__________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Center ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN HPLX-sendmail Vulnerability [HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY SECURITY BULLETIN: #007 - 12/18/01] December 19, 2001 21:00 GMT Number M-028 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: Hewlett-Packard has identified a vulnerability in hplx-sendmail-1.0-1 which is based upon Sendmail version 8.11.6. There is an input validation flaw in part of its debugging code. PLATFORM: HP Secure OS software for Linux Release 1.0 DAMAGE: Potential for local users to gain unauthorized root access. SOLUTION: Apply available patch. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is MEDIUM. To gain access the attacker would have to ASSESSMENT: be logged in as a local user. ______________________________________________________________________________ LINKS: CIAC BULLETIN: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/m-028.shtml PATCHES: http://itrc.hp.com ______________________________________________________________________________ [***** Start HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY SECURITY BULLETIN: #007 - 12/18/01 *****] Document ID: HPSBTL0112-007 Date Loaded: 20011218 Title: Security vulnerability in hplx-sendmail --------------------------------------------------------------- HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY SECURITY BULLETIN: #007 Originally issued: 18 December '01 --------------------------------------------------------------- The information in the following Security Bulletin should be acted upon as soon as possible. Hewlett-Packard Company will not be liable for any consequences to any customer resulting from customer's failure to fully implement instructions in this Security Bulletin as soon as possible. --------------------------------------------------------------- PROBLEM: Security vulnerability in hplx-sendmail. PLATFORM: Any system running HP Secure OS software for Linux Release 1.0 DAMAGE: Potential for local users to gain unauthorized root access. SOLUTION: Apply the appropriate patch. MANUAL ACTIONS: None AVAILABILITY: The patch is available now. --------------------------------------------------------------- A. Background hplx-sendmail-1.0-1 is based upon (publicly available) Sendmail version 8.11.6 which has an input validation flaw in part of its debugging code. This flaw could be exploited by an attacker who already has local access to a system and wants to gain root privileges. This flaw is fixed in hplx-sendmail-1.1-1, which is based upon Sendmail v8.12.1. B. Fixing the problem Apply the following patch: HPTL_00007 This patch is available as follows: - Use your browser to access the HP IT Resource Center page at: http://itrc.hp.com Use the 'Login' tab at the left side of the screen to login using your ID and password. Use your existing login or the "Register" button at the left to create a login. Remember to save the User ID assigned to you, and your password. This login provides access to many useful areas of the ITRC. Under the "Maintenance and Support" section, select "Individual Patches". In the field at the bottom of the page labeled "retrieve a specific patch by entering the patch name", enter {{ Patch number (s) }} For instructions on installing the patch, please see the install text file included in the patch. C. To subscribe to automatically receive future NEW HP Security Bulletins from the HP IT Resource Center via electronic mail, do the following: Use your browser to access to the HP IT Resource Center page at: http://itrc.hp.com Use the 'Login' tab at the left side of the screen to login using your ID and password. Use your existing login or the "Register" button at the left to create a login. Remember to save the User ID assigned to you, and your password. This login provides access to many useful areas of the ITRC. In the leftmost frame select "Maintenance and Support". Under the "Notifications" section (near the bottom of the page), select "Support Information Digests". To -subscribe- to future HP Security Bulletins or other Technical Digests, click the check box (in the left column) for the appropriate digest and then click the "Update Subscriptions" button at the bottom of the page. or To -review- bulletins already released, select the link (in the middle column) for the appropriate digest. D. To report new security vulnerabilities, send email to security-alert@hp.com Please encrypt any exploit information using the security-alert PGP key, available from your local key server. You ma also get the security-alert PGP key by sending a message with a -subject- (not body) of 'get key' (no quotes) to security-alert@hp.com. Permission is granted for copying and circulating this Bulletin to Hewlett-Packard (HP) customers (or the Internet community) for the purpose of alerting them to problems, if and only if, the Bulletin is not edited or changed in any way, is attributed to HP, and provided such reproduction and/or distribution is performed for non-commercial purposes. Any other use of this information is prohibited. HP is not liable for any misuse of this information by any third party. --------------------------------------------------------------- -----End of Document ID: HPSBTL0112-007-------------------------------------- [***** End HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY SECURITY BULLETIN: #007 - 12/18/01 *****] _______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Hewlett-Packard for the information contained in this bulletin. _______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Center, 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/ Anonymous FTP: ftp.ciac.org 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) M-018: Cisco - Multiple Vulnerabilities in ACL Implementations M-019: Multiple Vendor CDE dtpscd Process Buffer Overflow M-020: SGI Multiple Local SendMail Vulnerability M-021: Hewlett-Packard Remote Logic Flaw Vulnerability in rlpdaemon M-022: SGI IRIX shells create temporary files insecurely M-023: Multiple Vendor wu-ftdp File Globbing Heap Corruption Vulnerability M-024: Microsoft Internet Explorer calls telnet.exe with unsafe command-line arguments M-025: IRIX NEdit Vulnerability M-026: OpenSSH UseLogin Privilege Elevation Vulnerability M-027: Microsoft Internet Explorer-Content Type Falsification (Three Vulnerabilities)