______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                cfengine
        Date:                   Wednesday, October 11th, 2000 19:15 MEST
        Affected SuSE versions: 5.3, 6.0, 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0
        Vulnerability Type:     remote (root) compromise
        Severity (1-10):        5
        SuSE default package:   no
        Other affected systems: Linux systems using the pam_smb module

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: pam_smb
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds
        3) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

1)  problem description, brief discussion, solution, upgrade information

    GNU cfengine is an abstract programming language for system
    administrators of large heterogeneous networks, used for maintenance
    and administration. Pekka Savola <pekkas@netcore.fi> has found several
    format string vulnerabilities in syslog() calls that can be abused to
    either make the cfengine program to segfault and die or to execute 
    arbitrary commands as the user the cfengine process runs as (usually
    root).

    The cfengine package is not installed per default, and not activated
    when installed. Thus, the vulnerability affects only systems where the
    administrator actively uses this tool.

    The only efficient fix for the problem is an update of the cfengine 
    package since access restrictions limit the attack possibilities to
    a closed group of hosts/users only.

    Download the update package from locations desribed below and install 
    the package with the command `rpm -Fhv file.rpm'. The md5sum for each
    file is in the line below. You can verify the integrity of the rpm
    files using the command
        `rpm --checksig --nogpg file.rpm',
    independently from the md5 signatures below.


    i386 Intel Platform:

    SuSE-7.0
      
      dc42c40f3d38756f03d0fe120854438f
    source rpm:
      
      2fd8a119cfef86239ce8fa96eb84115d

    SuSE-6.4
      
      751acfe93106296ce1109a2502756802
    source rpm:
      
      843b0f958737d528d7160f7fada0e480

    SuSE-6.3
      
      c8acb6a4cb25bf5794a58cbdddeadb3c
    source rpm:
      
      0fc789bf5ee81448416e3b70665eac5e

    SuSE-6.2
      
      414b3b1ba8d1f6c54e8edf1bc06e3fd4
    source rpm:
      
      4cbc2ee010505ebd386c77c275cbe623

    SuSE-6.1
      
      c90ee6da76d111f537ae3bf0e3a8410d
    source rpm:
      
      de796070b0df0e7ff564ba73ef02fa2e

    SuSE-6.0
    please use the update packages for the SuSE-6.1 distribution.

    SuSE-5.3
      
      a47f6a4a9affbe258d3c83b569b1dba4
      
      546bc5a8a2e2c4b717d83fe4c04519bd


    Sparc Platform:

    SuSE-7.0
    
 
      3517304c0fd9ff411631ea4c8191516f
    source rpm:
      
      fdc47c721783442a605ca209fa088122


    AXP Alpha Platform:

    SuSE-6.4
      
      409a3b91a67f383a330ea26faccb5eef
    source rpm:
      
      b86fe2ebe7e971c98203c977543ffddc

    SuSE-6.3
    Please use the update packages for the SuSE-6.4 distribution.

    SuSE-6.1
      
      b15950b227f1e77e783dba1ebf512df4
    source rpm:
      
      d38bc69b3024e375b3757b869fab88df



    PPC Power PC Platform:

    SuSE-7.0
      
      2ee85ef27d51cac7ac1d574e8233aae5
    source rpm:
      
      282c56270f5ecc8b58cc8be27472f6aa

    SuSE-6.4
      
      ddc0e11f730e2fbb2ef5462987eadffa
    source rpm:
      
      e2f61fcf0e0598f673fc93411fbbbb18

______________________________________________________________________________

2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - gnorpm

        A race condition has been found in the gnorpm program, a GUI for
        the rpm system. The issue will be addressed in a following advisory.


    - ncurses

        The ncurses library contains buffer overflows that are exploitable
        when user-supplied terminfo databases are processed. This imposes a
        security risk on programs/binaries that are linked against libncurses
        and run with special privileges. Both workaround and clean solution
        is to remove the suid bit from all executable files with setuid bit
        set.
        The issue will be addressed in a following security announcement.


    - apache mod_rewrite, php

        A bug has been discovered in the apache package that allows attackers        to read arbitrary files on a system that runs apache. The responsible
        apache module named "mod_rewrite" is not used by default on SuSE
        installations of the apache package. The issue will be addressed in 
        a following security announcement.


    - usermode/userhelper

        userhelper is a suid helper program designed to let the user who
        is logged on to the console execute some programs with root 
        privileges. SuSE distributions do not contain the usermode package
        and therefore are not vulnerable to the security problems recently
        discovered in the usermode package.


    - tmpwatch

        The tmpwatch packages as shipped with SuSE distributions are not
        vulnerable to the attacks as discussed on security forums because
        we ship an older version that does not provide the functionality
        that can be exploited.


    - lprNG

        The versions of the lprNG package that come with SuSE distributions
        are not vulnerable to the format string parsing errors as discussed
        in security forums.


    - traceroute

        The traceroute program has been found vulnerable to a bug 
        (`traceroute -g 1 -g 1') in many distributions. Newer SuSE 
        distributions have a different implementation of the traceroute
        program and are not vulnerable to the bug found by 
        Pekka Savola <pekkas@netcore.fi>. The vulnerability could not be
        verified in older SuSE distributions.

______________________________________________________________________________

3)  standard appendix:

    SuSE runs two security mailing lists to which any interested party may
    subscribe:

    suse-security@suse.com
        -   general/linux/SuSE security discussion. 
            All SuSE security announcements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an email to 
                <suse-security-subscribe@suse.com>.

    suse-security-announce@suse.com
        -   SuSE's announce-only mailing list.
            Only SuSE's security annoucements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an email to
                <suse-security-announce-subscribe@suse.com>.

    For general information or the frequently asked questions (faq) 
    send mail to:
        <suse-security-info@suse.com> or
        <suse-security-faq@suse.com> respectively.

    ==============================================    SuSE's security contact is <security@suse.com>.
    ==============================================
Regards,
Roman Drahtmüller.
- - -- 
 -                                                                      -
| Roman Drahtmüller      <draht@suse.de> //          "Caution: Cape does |
  SuSE GmbH - Security           Phone: //       not enable user to fly."
| Nürnberg, Germany     +49-911-740530 // (Batman Costume warning label) |
 -                                                                      -
______________________________________________________________________________

    The information in this advisory may be distributed or reproduced,
    provided that the advisory is not modified in any way.
    SuSE GmbH makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect 
    to the information contained in this security advisory.

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  2048/3D25D3D9 1999/03/06 SuSE Security Team <security@suse.de>

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