______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                nfs-utils
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2003:031
        Date:                   Tue Jul 15 14:00:00 MEST 2003
        Affected products:      7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2
                                SuSE Linux Database Server,
                                SuSE eMail Server III, 3.1
                                SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7, 8
                                SuSE Linux Firewall on CD/Admin host
                                SuSE Linux Connectivity Server
                                SuSE Linux Office Server
                                SuSE Linux Desktop 1.0
        Vulnerability Type:     remote code execution
        Severity (1-10):        7
        SuSE default package:   yes
        Cross References:       CAN-2003-0252
                                 ISEC

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: Off by one bug in rpc.mountd.
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
            - xpdf/acroread
            - lbreakout
            - Eterm
            - gnats
            - unzip
        3) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

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

    The nfs-utils package contains various programs to offer and manage
    certain RPC services such as the rpc.mountd.
     iSEC Security Research has reported an off-by-one bug in the xlog()
    function used by the rpc.mountd. It is possible for remote attackers    to use this off-by-one overflow to execute arbitrary code as root.
     Some of the products listed above seem not vulnerable to this
    one byte overflow due to the stack alignment generated by the compiler
    during the build. Nevertheless, since there is no easy workaround except
    shutting down the RPC services, an update is strongly recommended for
    every product listed above.

    This update needs to be applied to both NFS servers and clients,
    as the vulnerable function is used by mountd and statd.

    You can either restart these services manually, or use the
    corresponding init scripts:

      "rcnfsserver restart"           (for the NFS server)
      "rcnfs restart"                 (for the NFS client)

    Depending on your setup, it may be less disruptive to restart
    the two daemons manually.

    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.

    i386 Intel Platform:

    SuSE-8.2:
      
      964386359a4280b0f64b5d06cc0debb4
    patch rpm(s):
      
      5e67e844aa5d5c9d6fb3720f388813af
    source rpm(s):
      
      91695f1d03df64188c3a63126699a811

    SuSE-8.1:
      
      b212711af6445cb97773e30ed4284741
    patch rpm(s):
      
      8b267ea76f715f64b8a041c2f24cee07
    source rpm(s):
      
      6da708a468ca48dd4078cbeff2c842f6

    SuSE-8.0:
      
      3cec45e5a7fdac0e9d6c67d894e90b16
    patch rpm(s):
      
      5f86c33e9564e39df6f74c376d6d0ccd
    source rpm(s):
      
      f105acb95d3a770c4b142fd265bdf6a7

    SuSE-7.3:
      
      a4c43c562fc1d9ff65367795897d5fb5
    source rpm(s):
      
      dc56ab3deeb7a5ed6bde4e021ff35c10

    SuSE-7.2:
      
      1905a8a632eaf00dd5ad81f498ad6493
    source rpm(s):
      
      a048236b106c8a32bce936a39bdc0403


    Sparc Platform:

    SuSE-7.3:
      
      176b1636fa49520b3f700d399af39203
    source rpm(s):
      
      2b3cd21df36acf2b6076993855ef179f


    PPC Power PC Platform:

    SuSE-7.3:
      
      0af7e6f702231a3194063a2c99473bb4
    source rpm(s):
      
      6b4a8ea3c5e443d255e15123dc97b0e9

______________________________________________________________________________

2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - xpdf/acroread
    A problem regarding handling of external URLs by various
    PDF readers has been reported by CERT. Attackers could execute
    arbitrary commands as the user viewing the document by embedding
    shell meta characters in URLs.
      The xpdf PDF viewer as shipped with SuSE is not vulnerable to
    this attack due to its configuration. For the acrobat PDF reader
    we will provide updates on our ftp servers shortly.

    - lbreakout
    Various format string bugs in the code of the game lbreakout were
    reported for version 2-2.5. These bugs can be exploited remotely.
    SuSE Linux does not ship this vulnerable version of lbreakout.

    - Eterm
    A buffer overflow in eterm while handling the environment
    variable ETERMPATH can lead to local privilege escalation.
    SuSE do not ship eterm with higher privileges.

    - gnats
    Several security bugs were reported in gnats. These bugs will
    be fixed and update packages will released soon.

    - unzip
    Unzip can be tricked into overwriting files by using special
    zip archives. Fixed packages are available on our ftp servers.


______________________________________________________________________________

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>