SuSE alert: esound

Posted by dave on Oct 11, 2000 9:08 AM EDT
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esound, a daemon program for the Gnome desktop, is used for sound replay by various programs such as windowmanagers and other applications. The esound daemon creates a directory /tmp/.esd to host a unix domain socket. Upon startup, the daemon changes the modes of the socket, but a race condition allows an attacker to place a symlink into the directory to point to an arbitrary file belonging to the victim. By consequence, an attacker may be able to change the permissions of any file belonging to the victim. If the victim's userid is root, the attacker may be able to change the modes of any file in the system.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package: esound
        Date: Wednesday, October 11th, 2000 19:00 MEST
        Affected SuSE versions: 6.3, 6.4, 7.0
        Vulnerability Type: local user compromise
        Severity (1-10): 3
        SuSE default package: yes
        Other affected systems: Linux systems using esound with unix domain
                                socket support

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: esound
           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

    esound, a daemon program for the Gnome desktop, is used for sound replay
    by various programs such as windowmanagers and other applications.
    The esound daemon creates a directory /tmp/.esd to host a unix domain
    socket. Upon startup, the daemon changes the modes of the socket, but
    a race condition allows an attacker to place a symlink into the
    directory to point to an arbitrary file belonging to the victim. By
    consequence, an attacker may be able to change the permissions of any
    file belonging to the victim. If the victim's userid is root, the
    attacker may be able to change the modes of any file in the system.

    SuSE distributions before SuSE-6.3 were not vulnerable to this attack
    because unix domain sockets were not supported by the esound daemon as
    shipped with these distributions.

    The only efficient solution for the problem is to store the unix domain
    socket in a directory where only the user has write access to. The
    user's home directory is such a location.

    Update packages that fix the race conditions by placing the sockets into
    the user's home directory are available for download. It is recommended
    to apply the fix on systems where multiple users can access the local
    filesystem.

    Note: Not all filesystems support unix domain sockets. The fix might
          not work if the user's home directory is on such a filesystem
          (such as AFS, eg.). In such rare cases, administrators are usually
          aware of such limitations. SuSE default installations do not have
          this limitation.

    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
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/snd1/esound-0.2.19-15.i386.rpm
      9d8addaa5ba29554a727eb34ae5189f4
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/zq1/esound-0.2.19-15.src.rpm
      a9724b99a96430b1b7c1f741a8e8d528

    SuSE-6.4
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.4/snd1/esound-0.2.16-75.i386.rpm
      6f32f0867d1597a5129d0516438d9cca
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.4/zq1/esound-0.2.16-75.src.rpm
      94ca6842981f7a501300d9edfc5cbf73

    SuSE-6.3
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.3/snd1/esound-0.2.15-21.i386.rpm
      16a5804a2f27e62d73df40d206b047ca
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.3/zq1/esound-0.2.15-21.src.rpm
      c86689fd5d9f719135e1263dd5a38832

    Sparc Platform:

    SuSE-7.0
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.0/snd1/esound-0.2.19-15.sparc.rpm
      112648ef64c351952f832b180fcca23c
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.0/zq1/esound-0.2.19-15.src.rpm
      a0bb3e3517ca83c13abd6827a8d2295e

    AXP Alpha Platform:

    SuSE-6.4
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.4/snd1/esound-0.2.16-75.alpha.rpm
      d2efefb21a6424a81e63788d972db49d
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.4/zq1/esound-0.2.16-75.src.rpm
      a69ebae320c6f118f4b9e07f2a9af4d2

    SuSE-6.3
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.3/snd1/esound-0.2.15-21.alpha.rpm
      19942e308eda0c0d505bb64da734ad8d
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.3/zq1/esound-0.2.15-21.src.rpm
      6f337d6864111d27fa93ef2bc3cb7b5a

    PPC Power PC Platform:

    SuSE-7.0
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.0/snd1/esound-0.2.19-16.ppc.rpm
        be6daabfee0e7e629b848814be81d9d0
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.0/zq1/esound-0.2.19-16.src.rpm
        c77475b2c8fff104f8662bb9179efb64

    SuSE-6.4
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/6.4/snd1/esound-0.2.16-75.ppc.rpm
      f0e1aa54c3fdf7c6c02b34bedc51ee0f
    source rpm:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/6.4/zq1/esound-0.2.16-75.src.rpm
      9acd25b5521201386bb73bc707382646

______________________________________________________________________________

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
        announcement.

    - 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

        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.

    - cfengine

        A format string parsing bug causes the cfengine package to be
        vulnerable to a remote root attack. Update packages are available,
        the security announcement is pending.

    - 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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