SuSE: ‘susehelp’ remote command execution vulnerability

39

Author: JT Smith

SuSE A.G.: The susehelp package contains several CGI-scripts to provide a flexible help-system to the user. Some of these scripts open files in an insecure manner, thus allowing remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands as wwwrun-user on the server running susehelp package. These bugs have been fixed in the newly available packages. Please update your susehelp package immediately if present on your system.

______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                susehelp
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2001:041
        Date:                   Thu Nov 22 11:36:00 MET 2001
        Affected SuSE versions: 7.2, 7.3
        Vulnerability Type:     remote command execution
        Severity (1-10):        8
        SuSE default package:   yes
        Other affected systems: no

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: CGI vulnerability in susehelp.
           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


    The susehelp package contains several CGI-scripts to provide a flexible
    help-system to the user. Some of these scripts open files in an insecure
    manner, thus allowing remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands
    as wwwrun-user on the server running susehelp package. These bugs have been
    fixed in the newly available packages. Please update your susehelp package
    immediately if present on your system.


    SuSE-7.3:

     ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.3/doc1/susehelp-2001.09.06-110.noarch.rpm
8b441a44bda65f5e162d326d1e6ed1df
    source rpm:
     ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.3/zq1/susehelp-2001.09.06-110.src.rpm
9e38fa3bbc650974c8138981754610b6


    SuSE-7.2:

     ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.2/doc1/susehelp-2001.05.14-41.noarch.rpm
27789618aeb317225c8262016afb65b9
    source rpm:
     ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.2/zq1/susehelp-2001.05.14-41.src.rpm
fd5a85ebada13eb6de95067b066746c0


______________________________________________________________________________

2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - The ziptool program runs setuid root in the easy permission mode and
      contains an overflow which allows local attackers to gain root
      privileges. A zipdrive must be configured and a zipdisk being inserted
      in order to exploit the bug. The overflow has been fixed. Please update
      your packages.

    - The ncpfs package containing the setuid root programs ncpmount and
      ncpumount was vulnerable to local bufferoverflow attacks. The package
      has been fixed.

______________________________________________________________________________

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 uninstalled 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 build@suse.de" upon installation or upgrade, provided that
           the package gpg is installed. The file containing the public key
           is placed at the toplevel directory of the first CD (pubring.gpg)
           and at  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/pubring.gpg-build.suse.de .


  - 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>.
    The security@suse.com> 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 cleartext signature shows proof of the
    authenticity of the text.
    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  2048R/3D25D3D9 1999-03-06 SuSE Security Team security@suse.de>
pub  1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key build@suse.de>

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