______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                mysql
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2003:003
        Date:                   Thu Jan  2 15:00:00 MET 2003
        Affected products:      7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 8.1,
                                SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7,
                                SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8,
                                SuSE Linux Connectivity Server,
                                SuSE Linux Office Server,
                                UnitedLinux 1.0
        Vulnerability Type:     remote command execution
        Severity (1-10):        6
        SuSE default package:   no
        Cross References:        

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: Signedness issue and password
           checking in mysqld, buffer overflow in mysqlclient library.
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds: grub
        3) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

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

    Stefan Esser from e-matters reported various bugs in MySQL. Within the
    MySQL server the password checking and a signedness issue has been fixed.
    These could lead to a remote compromise of the system running an unpatched
    MySQL server. In order to exploit this bug, the remote attacker needs a
    valid MySQL account.
       Further, a buffer overflow in the mysqlclient library has been reported
    and fixed. Applications using this library (as commonly used from within
    PHP scripts) are vulnerable to this attack and could also be compromised
    by remote attackers.

    Since there is no workaround possible except shutting down the MySQL
    server, we strongly recommend an update.

    Please download the update package for your distribution and verify its
    integrity by the methods listed in section 3) of this announcement.
    Then, install the package using the command "rpm -Fhv file.rpm" to apply
    the update.
    Our maintenance customers are being notified individually. The packages
    are being offered to install from the maintenance web.

    To be sure the update takes effect you have to restart the MySQL server
    by executing the following command as root:

        /etc/rc.d/mysql restart

    If you run applications which utilize the mysqlclient library (i.e. software
    that accesses a MySQL database server) make sure you restart them again to
    force the use of the patched libraries.

    We thank MySQL Product and Release Engineer Lenz Grimmer as well as
    e-matters Stefan Esser who discovered the bugs for their committment to
    security matters and the communication of them.


    i386 Intel Platform:

    SuSE-8.1:
      
      3d6ede325e9abb155ec043c7b3406963
      
      7de01d80d0d04ef09c16d490da20eb80
      
      1b04831d6c838ee98ae76626b632640a
    patch rpm(s):
      
      6e054f2f7a2f698d45424f939031b59f
      
      4339ae7b1bf4c792529eec784d0dbf9a
      
      c797f92a05aff6cf202597e5b132e91a
    source rpm(s):
      
      d9ee023e43fe6fba95a2d06a74ecc7de

    SuSE-8.0:
      
      690c230feee9f1fe70c1c749a2869002
      
      c9f595ef30a4b509145343d71e2883a3
      
      cebe56578cda9c7e2abf66f37b5f4e92
    patch rpm(s):
      
      a895a353044c5f1e3b3e3ad604154b44
      
      f25cf16f4137087358fca3afb483a060
      
      51a37bc09a2166985f64dcb3ca32b310
    source rpm(s):
      
      8ef39453726a5718dfd04e96d4dda563

    SuSE-7.3:
      
      4f77fbc7eed3d2a59a6bb1c6bd531fa5
      
      ed5c6dec77a1d3ae7104648174cc3436
      
      3a42e424582dacec4b0e9b16efac6139
    source rpm(s):
      
      88c7853aed32efcb6574f778dd232ba1

    SuSE-7.2:
      
      938cbbe502417853db0f775bb8e92c44
      
      7a7512942891bf6e1f4b720040904ba5
      
      57735d0f9785f6fc77788f3b13b332f5
    source rpm(s):
      
      6f38945f2b4f75102ac99b2dc3428b8d

    SuSE-7.1:
      
      a9d713d2a0a31984978824b4f125639d
      
      90161c0e243abc25144a55604b2e2f09
      
      c49b07eec14807229b52290a22813f8d
    source rpm(s):
      
      0bb214ca23113955fc0f130f20c1fd39


    Sparc Platform:

    SuSE-7.3:
      
      e3296fa34a5cfd176242edfda6e376a2
      
      e96d4daefea1651404d8c9cfebaec942
      
      afb5dfad0a91e744eb6e57f70ad1472b
    source rpm(s):
      
      17cededbc0bfc0090a9b7def28289c70


    AXP Alpha Platform:

    SuSE-7.1:
      
      c1da6b2e077c630d3d15241cf2009df2
      
      67aecaf18483d7f269eac1bd1729630b
      
      23ce1f6ad353d636869b76e8af11036b
    source rpm(s):
      
      abafa3a973f2890d2c5909f485c195ae


    PPC Power PC Platform:

    SuSE-7.3:
      
      0a1726674eb97da908d847682b864a0f
      
      470881fcae2294ed3adcb98d68a98b09
      
      9b19744767d031e42ea02e4afc02126e
    source rpm(s):
      
      9da2de99332ea5b276e98ff28ae22760

    SuSE-7.1:
      
      f30776f31ca3e7b0875a939d53a9a974
      
      38f22162c25e04e3b640cc37c2730bbd
      
      fc444c30aa506a592be3c3498246dc63
    source rpm(s):
      
      6cc3ab3601383b99b1da4959c1aa4961


______________________________________________________________________________

2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - grub
    The grub boot manager allows users with physical access to the
    terminal to circumvent the password protection from grub. Fixed
    packages will soon be available.

______________________________________________________________________________

3)  standard appendix: authenticity verification, additional information

  - Package authenticity verification:

    SuSE update packages are available on many mirror ftp servers all over
    the world. While this service is being considered valuable and important
    to the free and open source software community, many users wish to be
    sure about the origin of the package and its content before installing
    the package. There are two verification methods that can be used
    independently from each other to prove the authenticity of a downloaded
    file or rpm package:
    1) md5sums as provided in the (cryptographically signed) announcement.
    2) using the internal gpg signatures of the rpm package.

    1) execute the command
        md5sum 
       after you downloaded the file from a SuSE ftp server or its mirrors.
       Then, compare the resulting md5sum with the one that is listed in the
       announcement. Since the announcement containing the checksums is
       cryptographically signed (usually using the key security@suse.de),
       the checksums show proof of the authenticity of the package.
       We disrecommend to subscribe to security lists which cause the
       email message containing the announcement to be modified so that
       the signature does not match after transport through the mailing
       list software.
       Downsides: You must be able to verify the authenticity of the
       announcement in the first place. If RPM packages are being rebuilt
       and a new version of a package is published on the ftp server, all
       md5 sums for the files are useless.

    2) rpm package signatures provide an easy way to verify the authenticity
       of an rpm package. Use the command
        rpm -v --checksig 
       to verify the signature of the package, where  is the
       filename of the rpm package that you have downloaded. Of course,
       package authenticity verification can only target an un-installed rpm
       package file.
       Prerequisites:
        a) gpg is installed
        b) The package is signed using a certain key. The public part of this
           key must be installed by the gpg program in the directory
           ~/.gnupg/ under the user's home directory who performs the
           signature verification (usually root). You can import the key
           that is used by SuSE in rpm packages for SuSE Linux by saving
           this announcement to a file ("announcement.txt") and
           running the command (do "su -" to be root):
            gpg --batch; gpg < announcement.txt | gpg --import
           SuSE Linux distributions version 7.1 and thereafter install the
           key "build@suse.de" upon installation or upgrade, provided that
           the package gpg is installed. The file containing the public key
           is placed at the top-level directory of the first CD (pubring.gpg)
           and at   .


  - 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 announcements 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> or <security@suse.de>.
    The <security@suse.de> public key is listed below.
    ====================================================================______________________________________________________________________________

    The information in this advisory may be distributed or reproduced,
    provided that the advisory is not modified in any way. In particular,
    it is desired that the clear-text signature shows proof of the
    authenticity of the text.
    SuSE Linux AG makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect
    to the information contained in this security advisory.

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  2048R/3D25D3D9 1999-03-06 SuSE Security Team <security@suse.de>
pub  1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <build@suse.de>