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- CERT(sm) Advisory CA-95:02
- Original issue date: January 26, 1995
- Last revised: November 21, 1996
- Removed Appendices B and C. Updated Sec. B, par. 3 with the
- location of the current mail.local.
-
- A complete revision history is at the end of this file.
-
- Topic: Vulnerabilities in /bin/mail
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- *** This advisory supersedes CA-91:01a and CA-91:13. ***
-
- There are vulnerabilities in some versions of /bin/mail. Section III below
- provides vendor-specific information and an alternative to /bin/mail.
-
- We will update this advisory as we receive additional information.
- Please check advisory files regularly for updates that relate to your site.
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- I. Description
-
- Some versions of /bin/mail based on BSD 4.3 UNIX are vulnerable
- because of timing windows in the way /bin/mail uses publicly writable
- directories.
-
- II. Impact
-
- Local users (users that have an account on the system) can create
- or modify root-owned files on the system and can thereby gain
- unauthorized root access.
-
- III. Solutions
-
- Either install a patch from your vendor or replace /bin/mail with
- mail.local.
-
- A. Obtain the appropriate patch from your vendor and install it
- according to the instructions included with the patch.
-
- Below is a summary of the vendors listed in Appendix A of this
- advisory and the information they have provided. If your vendor's
- name is not on this list, please contact the vendor directly.
-
- Vendor or Source Status
- ---------------- ------------
- Apple Computer, Inc. not vulnerable
- Berkeley SW Design, Inc. (BSDI) not vulnerable
- Data General Corp. not vulnerable
- Digital Equipment Corp. vulnerable, patches available
- FreeBSD not vulnerable
- Harris not vulnerable
- IBM not vulnerable
- NetBSD not vulnerable
- NeXT, Inc. not vulnerable
- Pyramid not vulnerable
- The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) see note in Appendix A
- Solbourne (Grumman) vulnerable - contact vendor
- Sun Microsystems, Inc. SunOS 4.x vulnerable, patches
- available, patch revisions
- coming soon
- Solaris 2.x not vulnerable
-
- B. Replace /bin/mail with mail.local.
-
- If you cannot obtain a vendor-supplied replacement for /bin/mail, the
- CERT Coordination Center recommends using mail.local as a replacement
- for /bin/mail.
-
- Although the current version of mail.local is not a perfect solution,
- it addresses the vulnerabilities currently being exploited in
- /bin/mail.
-
- mail.local is now provided with the lastest version of sendmail.
- That version can be found at
-
- ftp://info.cert.org/pub/tools/sendmail/sendmail-latest*
-
-
- The original version of mail.local has been tested on SunOS 4.1
- and Ultrix 4.X systems.
-
- Mail.local.c for BSD 4.3 systems, along with a README file containing
- installation instructions, can be found on the anonymous FTP servers
- listed below.
-
- Location
- --------
- ftp://info.cert.org/pub/tools/mail.local/mail.local.c
- MD5 c0d64e740b42f6dc5cc54a2bc37c31b0
-
- ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/mail.local/mail.local.c
- MD5 c0d64e740b42f6dc5cc54a2bc37c31b0
-
- ...............................................................................
-
- Appendix A: Vendor Information
-
- Below is information we have received from vendors who have patches available
- or upcoming for the vulnerabilities described in this advisory, as well as
- vendors who have confirmed that their products are not vulnerable. If your
- vendor's name is not in one of these lists, contact the vendor directly for
- information on whether their version of sendmail is vulnerable and, if so, the
- status of patches to address the vulnerabilities.
-
- NOT VULNERABLE
- - --------------
- The following vendors have reported that their products are NOT vulnerable.
- Apple Computer, Inc.
- Berkeley SW Design, Inc. (BSDI)
- Data General Corp.
- Harris
- IBM
- NeXT, Inc.
- Pyramid
- The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) - not vulnerable, but see note below
- Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Solaris 2.x (SunOS 4.x is vulnerable; see
- below)
-
- In addition, we have reports that the following products are NOT vulnerable.
- FreeBSD
- NetBSD
-
- VULNERABLE
- - ----------
- We have reports that the following vendors' products ARE vulnerable.
- Patch information is provided below.
-
- - -----------------------------
- Digital Equipment Corporation
-
- Vulnerable: DEC OSF/1 versions 1.2, 1.3, and 2.0
- DEC ULTRIX versions 4.3, 4.3A, and 4.4
-
- Obtain and install the appropriate patch according to the instructions
- included with the patch. The patch that corrects the /bin/mail problem in each
- case is part of a comprehensive Security Enhanced Kit that addresses other
- problems as well. This kit has been available since May 17, 1994. It is
- described in DEC security advisory #0505 and in CERT bulletin VB-94:02.
-
- 1. DEC OSF/1
- Upgrade/install OSF/1 to a minimum of V2.0 and
- install Security Enhanced Kit CSCPAT_4061 v1.0.
-
- 2. DEC ULTRIX
- Upgrade/install ULTRIX to a minimum of V4.4 and
- install Security Enhanced Kit CSCPAT_4060 v1.0.
-
- Both kits listed above are available from Digital Equipment Corporation by
- contacting your normal Digital support channel or by request via DSNlink for
- electronic transfer.
-
- - -----------------------------
- The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO)
-
- SCO's version of /bin/mail is not vulnerable to the problems mentioned
- in this advisory. SCO's /bin/mail is not setuid-root. However, SCO's
- /bin/mail has other security-related issues that are fixed by SCO's
- Support Level Supplement (SLS) uod392a. To get this:
-
- ftp: ftp.sco.COM:/SLS/uod392a.Z (compressed disk image)
- ftp.sco.COM:/SLS/uod392a.ltr.Z (cover letter)
- ftp.sco.COM:/SLS/README
-
- - -----------------------------
- Solbourne
-
- Grumman System Support Corporation now performs all Solbourne
- software and hardware support. Please contact them for further
- information.
-
- ftp: ftp.nts.gssc.com
- phone: 1-800-447-2861
- e-mail: support@nts.gssc.com
-
- - -----------------------------
- Sun Microsystems, Inc.
-
- Current patches are listed below:
-
- SunOS Patch MD5 Checksum
- ------ ----- ------------
- 4.1.3 100224-13.tar.Z 90a507017a1a40c4622b3f1f00ce5d2d
- 4.1.3U1 101436-08.tar.Z 0e64560edc61eb4b3da81a932e8b11e1
-
- The patches can be obtained from local Sun Answer Centers and
- through anonymous FTP from ftp.uu.net in the /systems/sun/sun-dist
- directory. In Europe, the patches are available from mcsun.eu.net
- in the /sun/fixes directory.
-
-
- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The CERT Coordination Center thanks Eric Allman, Wolfgang Ley, Karl
- Strickland, Wietse Venema, and Neil Woods for their contributions to
- mail.local.
- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT
- Coordination Center or your representative in Forum of Incident
- Response and Security Teams (FIRST).
-
- If you wish to send sensitive incident or vulnerability information to
- CERT staff by electronic mail, we strongly advise that the e-mail be
- encrypted. The CERT Coordination Center can support a shared DES key, PGP
- (public key available via anonymous FTP on info.cert.org), or PEM (contact
- CERT staff for details).
-
- Internet E-mail: cert@cert.org
- Telephone: +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)
- CERT personnel answer 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EST(GMT-5)/EDT(GMT-4),
- and are on call for emergencies during other hours.
- Fax: +1 412-268-6989
-
- CERT Coordination Center
- Software Engineering Institute
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
- USA
-
- Past advisories, CERT bulletins, information about FIRST representatives,
- and other information related to computer security are available for anonymous
- FTP from info.cert.org.
-
- Copyright 1995, 1996 Carnegie Mellon University
- This material may be reproduced and distributed without permission provided
- it is used for noncommercial purposes and the copyright statement is
- included.
-
- CERT is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University.
-
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Revision history
-
- Nov. 21, 1996 Removed Appendices B & C.
- Sec. B, paragraph 3 - updated information about the location
- of mail.local.
- Aug. 30, 1996 Information previously in the README was inserted
- into the advisory, and URL formats were updated.
- June 09, 1995 Appendix A - corrected patch information from Sun.
-
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