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- CERT(sm) Advisory CA-96.17
- Original issue date: August 6, 1996
- Last revised: August 30, 1996
- Removed references to the advisory README file.
-
- A complete revision history is at the end of this file.
-
- Topic: Vulnerability in Solaris vold
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- The text of this advisory was originally released on August 2, 1996, as
- AUSCERT Advisory AL-96.04, developed by the Australian Computer Emergency
- Response Team. We are reprinting the AUSCERT advisory here with their
- permission. Only the contact information at the end has changed: AUSCERT
- contact information has been replaced with CERT/CC contact information.
-
- We will update this advisory as we receive additional information.
- Please check advisory files regularly for updates that relate to your site.
-
- =============================================================================
-
- AUSCERT has received a report of a vulnerability in the Sun Microsystems
- Solaris 2.x distribution involving the Volume Management daemon, vold(1M).
- This program is used to help manage CDROM and floppy devices.
-
- This vulnerability may allow a local user to gain root privileges.
-
- Exploit details involving this vulnerability have been made publicly
- available.
-
- At this stage, AUSCERT is not aware of any official patches. AUSCERT
- recommends that sites take the actions suggested in Section 3 until official
- patches are available.
-
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 1. Description
-
- The Volume Management daemon, vold(1M), manages the CDROM and floppy
- devices. For example, it provides the ability to automatically detect,
- and then mount, removable media such as CDROMs and floppy devices.
-
- vold is part of the Solaris 2.x Volume Management package (SUNWvolu).
- It is executed as a background daemon on system startup and runs as root.
-
- When vold detects that a CDROM or floppy has been inserted into a drive,
- it is configured to automatically mount the media, making it available
- to users. Part of this process includes the creation of temporary files,
- which are used to allow the Openwindows File Manager, filemgr(1), to
- determine that new media has been mounted. These files are created by
- the action_filemgr.so shared object which is called indirectly by vold
- through rmmount(1M). The handling of these files is not performed in a
- secure manner. As vold is configured to access these temporary files
- with root privileges, it may be possible to manipulate vold into creating
- or over-writing arbitrary files on the system.
-
- This vulnerability requires that vold be running and media managed by
- vold, such as a CDROM or floppy, be physically loaded into a drive. Note
- that a local user need not have physical access to the media drive to
- exploit this vulnerability. It is enough to wait until somebody else
- loads the drive, exploiting the vulnerability at that time.
-
- This vulnerability is known to be present in Solaris 2.4 and Solaris 2.5.
- Solaris distributions prior to Solaris 2.4 are also expected to be
- vulnerable.
-
- 2. Impact
-
- Local users may be able to create or over-write arbitrary files on the
- system. This can be leveraged to gain root privileges.
-
- 3. Workaround
-
- AUSCERT believes the workarounds given in Sections 3.1 or 3.2 will address
- this vulnerability. Vendor patches may also address this vulnerability
- in the future (Section 3.3).
-
- 3.1 Edit /etc/rmmount.conf
-
- The temporary files which are susceptible to attack are created by the
- /usr/lib/rmmount/action_filemgr.so.1 shared object which is called
- indirectly by vold through rmmount(1M). rmmount(1M) can be
- configured so that it does not create the temporary files, thereby
- removing this vulnerability.
-
- To our knowledge, configuring rmmount(1M) in this fashion will not
- affect the functionality of vold. It will, however, remove the
- ability of the Openwindows File Manager, filemgr(1), to automatically
- detect newly mounted media.
-
- To prevent rmmount(1M) creating temporary files, sites must edit the
- /etc/rmmount.conf file and comment out (or remove) any entry which
- references action_filemgr.so.
-
- The standard /etc/rmmount.conf contains the following entries which
- must be commented out (or deleted) to remove this vulnerability:
-
- action cdrom action_filemgr.so
- action floppy action_filemgr.so
-
- After applying this workaround, an example of /etc/rmmount.conf may look
- like:
-
- # @(#)rmmount.conf 1.2 92/09/23 SMI
- #
- # Removable Media Mounter configuration file.
- #
-
- # File system identification
- ident hsfs ident_hsfs.so cdrom
- ident ufs ident_ufs.so cdrom floppy pcmem
- ident pcfs ident_pcfs.so floppy pcmem
-
- # Actions
- #
- # Following two lines commented out to remove vold vulnerability
- #
- # action cdrom action_filemgr.so
- # action floppy action_filemgr.so
-
- Note that vold does not have to be restarted for these changes to
- take effect.
-
- 3.2 Remove the Volume Management system
-
- Sites who do not require the vold functionality should remove the complete
- set of Volume Management packages. These are SUNWvolg, SUNWvolu and
- SUNWvolr. These packages can be removed using pkgrm(1M).
-
- 3.3 Install vendor patches
-
- Currently, AUSCERT is not aware of any official patches which address
- this vulnerability. When official patches are made available, AUSCERT
- suggests that they be installed.
-
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- AUSCERT wishes to thanks to Leif Hedstrom, Mark McPherson(QTAC),
- Marek Krawus(UQ), DFN-CERT and CERT/CC for their assistance in this matter.
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT
- Coordination Center or your representative in the Forum of Incident
- Response and Security Teams (FIRST).
-
- We strongly urge you to encrypt any sensitive information you send by email.
- The CERT Coordination Center can support a shared DES key and PGP. Contact
- the CERT staff for more information.
-
- Location of CERT PGP key
- ftp://info.cert.org/pub/CERT_PGP.key
-
- CERT Contact Information
- - ------------------------
- Email cert@cert.org
-
- Phone +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)
- CERT personnel answer 8:30-5:00 p.m. EST
- (GMT-5)/EDT(GMT-4), and are on call for
- emergencies during other hours.
-
- Fax +1 412-268-6989
-
- Postal address
- CERT Coordination Center
- Software Engineering Institute
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
- USA
-
- CERT publications, information about FIRST representatives, and other
- security-related information are available for anonymous FTP from
- http://www.cert.org/
- ftp://info.cert.org/pub/
-
- CERT advisories and bulletins are also posted on the USENET newsgroup
- comp.security.announce
-
- To be added to our mailing list for CERT advisories and bulletins, send your
- email address to
- cert-advisory-request@cert.org
-
-
-
- CERT is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University.
-
- This file:
- ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-96.17.Solaris_vold_vul
- http://www.cert.org
- click on "CERT Advisories"
-
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Revision history
-
- Aug. 30, 1996 Removed references to CA-96.17.README.
- Beginning of the advisory - removed AUSCERT advisory header
- to avoid confusion.
-
-
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