Red Hat alert: New ncurses packages fixing buffer overrun available

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                   Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory

Synopsis:          New ncurses packages fixing buffer overrun available
Advisory ID:       RHSA-2000:115-01
Issue date:        2000-11-23
Updated on:        2000-11-23
Product:           Red Hat Linux
Keywords:          ncurses buffer overrun exploit setuid
Cross references:  N/A
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1. Topic:

If you are any setuid applications that use ncurses and its cursor movement
functionality, local users may gain access to the program's privileges.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 6.2 - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 6.2EE - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 7.0 - i386

3. Problem description:

There used to be an overflowable buffer in the part of the ncurses library
handling cursor movement.
Attackers can force a privileged application to use their own termcap file
containing a special terminal entry which will trigger the ncurses
vulnerability, allowing them to execute arbitrary code with the privileges
of the exploited binary.

4. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:

rpm -Fvh [filename]

where filename is the name of the RPM.

5. Bug IDs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):

20809 - ncurses allows local privilege escalation


6. RPMs required:

Red Hat Linux 6.2:

alpha:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/alpha/ncurses-5.0-12.alpha.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/alpha/ncurses-devel-5.0-12.alpha.rpm

sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/sparc/ncurses-5.0-12.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/sparc/ncurses-devel-5.0-12.sparc.rpm

i386:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/i386/ncurses-5.0-12.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/i386/ncurses-devel-5.0-12.i386.rpm

sources:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/SRPMS/ncurses-5.0-12.src.rpm

Red Hat Linux 7.0:

i386:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.0/i386/ncurses-5.2-2.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.0/i386/ncurses-devel-5.2-2.i386.rpm

sources:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.0/SRPMS/ncurses-5.2-2.src.rpm

7. Verification:

MD5 sum                           Package Name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
268df5613b61b146b8cae1c59369c0b7  6.2/SRPMS/ncurses-5.0-12.src.rpm
1decbd07374fd9fb7ae5a12641d2667b  6.2/alpha/ncurses-5.0-12.alpha.rpm
ed52d2bad06cee2cec081bb889a5e363  6.2/alpha/ncurses-devel-5.0-12.alpha.rpm
d401a0317132c114a75dfeefb881f66c  6.2/i386/ncurses-5.0-12.i386.rpm
bc84ee23b1b8f960a0911a5388c52d24  6.2/i386/ncurses-devel-5.0-12.i386.rpm
654eca10b3b44afef783c39da3b254dc  6.2/sparc/ncurses-5.0-12.sparc.rpm
e273dd6e88899781bcc7441e7505de5c  6.2/sparc/ncurses-devel-5.0-12.sparc.rpm
4444a46c15c28db246b191daf4f3dfde  7.0/SRPMS/ncurses-5.2-2.src.rpm
9affe6c75ae33d616ea695766c10e44e  7.0/i386/ncurses-5.2-2.i386.rpm
a555ec460de5650c4a2c42abc5de838c  7.0/i386/ncurses-devel-5.2-2.i386.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security.  Our key
is available at:
    http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html

You can verify each package with the following command:
    rpm --checksig  

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or
tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:
    rpm --checksig --nogpg 

8. References:

N/A


Copyright(c) 2000 Red Hat, Inc.