__________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN 'utempter' Package Vulnerability [Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2004:175-05] April 30, 2004 22:00 GMT Number O-133 [REVISED 26 May 2004] [REVISED 23 Jun 2004] [REVISED 27 Oct 2004] ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: Utempter allows terminal applications to update utmp and wtmp without requiring root privileges. It contains a security vulnerability. PLATFORM: Red Hat Linux 9 Red Hat Desktop (v.3) Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v.2.1 & v.3) Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v.2.1 & v.3) Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v.2.1 & v.3) Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 for the Itanium Processor SGI ProPack v2.4 - Altix systems SGI ProPack v3 - Altix systems Sun Java Desktop System (JDS) DAMAGE: A flaw in Utempter allows device names containing directory traversal sequences such as '/../'. In combination with an application that trusts the utmp or wtmp files, this could allow a local attacker the ability to overwrite privileged files using a symlink. SOLUTION: Install security updates. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is LOW. A local attacker may overwrite privileged ASSESSMENT: files using a symlink. ______________________________________________________________________________ LINKS: CIAC BULLETIN: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/o-133.shtml ORIGINAL BULLETIN: https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-175.html ADDITIONAL LINKS: Red Hat RHSA-2004:174-09 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-174.html SGI #20040602-01-U for ProPack v2.4 - Patch #10079 ftp://patches.sgi.com/support/free/security/advisories/ 20040602-01-U.asc SGI #20040603-01-U for SGI ProPack 3 - Patch #10080 ftp://patches.sgi.com/support/free/security/advisories/ 20040603-01-U.asc Sun Security Alert 57658 http://www.sunsolve.sun.com/search/printfriendly.do? assetkey=1-26-57658-1 CVE/CAN: http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name= CVE-2004-0233 ______________________________________________________________________________ REVISION HISTORY: 05/26/2004 - Updated to add a link to Red Hat RHSA-2004:174-09 and to update the PLATFORM Section. 06/23/2004 - Added links for the two new releases of SGI Security Advisories/Patches and updated the PLATFORM section. 10/27/2004 - Added link to Sun Security Alert 57658 that provides patches for the Sun Java Desktop System. [***** Start Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2004:175-05 *****] Updated utempter package fixes vulnerability Advisory: RHSA-2004:175-05 Last updated on: 2004-04-30 Affected Products: Red Hat Linux 9 CVEs (cve.mitre.org): CAN-2004-0233 Security Advisory Details: An updated utempter package that fixes a potential symlink vulnerability is now available. Utempter is a utility that allows terminal applications such as xterm and screen to update utmp and wtmp without requiring root privileges. Steve Grubb discovered a flaw in Utempter which allowed device names containing directory traversal sequences such as '/../'. In combination with an application that trusts the utmp or wtmp files, this could allow a local attacker the ability to overwrite privileged files using a symlink. Users should upgrade to this new version of utempter, which fixes this vulnerability. Updated packages: Red Hat Linux 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SRPMS: utempter-0.5.5-2.RHL9.0.src.rpm [ via FTP ] [ via HTTP ] b7f13df830c3f64eef6c6895edfb3b1f i386: utempter-0.5.5-2.RHL9.0.i386.rpm [ via FTP ] [ via HTTP ] b207cd5661c7d687c3503399ce3bb611 Solution Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied. To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run: rpm -Fvh [filenames] where [filenames] 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 directory *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. If up2date fails to connect to Red Hat Network due to SSL Certificate Errors, you need to install a version of the up2date client with an updated certificate. The latest version of up2date is available from the Red Hat FTP site and may also be downloaded directly from the RHN website: https://rhn.redhat.com/help/latest-up2date.pxt References: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2004-0233 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The listed packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key is available at: http://www.redhat.com/solutions/security/news/publickey/#key You can verify each package and see who signed it with the following command: rpm --checksig -v filename If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command: md5sum filename The Red Hat security contact is security@redhat.com. More contact details at http://www.redhat.com/solutions/security/news/contact.html [***** End Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2004:175-05 *****] _______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Red Hat 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/ 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. 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