SuSE Security Announcement: netscape

Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 19:36:26 +0100 (MET)
From: Roman Drahtmueller draht@suse.de
To: suse-security-announce@suse.de
Subject: [suse-security-announce] SuSE Security Announcement: netscape (SuSE-SA:2000:48)

                        SuSE Security Announcement
 
        Package:                netscape
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2000:48
        Date:                   Thursday, November 30th, 2000 19:00 MET
        Affected SuSE versions: 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0
        Vulnerability Type:     clientside remote vulnerability
        Severity (1-10):        4
        SuSE default package:   yes
        Other affected systems: systems w/ netscape versions before 4.76
 
    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: netscape
           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

Michal Zalewski lcamtuf@DIONE.IDS.PL has found a buffer overflow in the html parser code of the Netscape Navigator in all versions before and including 4.75. html code of the form

<form action=foo method=bar> <input type=password value=long string here> more form tags </form>

can crash the browser. It may be possible for an attacker to supply a webpage that executes arbitrary code as the user running netscape. As of today, no exploit code is known to exist in the wild.

SuSE provides an update package for the vulnerable software. It is recommended to upgrade to the latest version found on our ftp server as described below. The update package introduces Netscape version 4.76.

NOTE:
Please note that Netscape-4.76 is not available for the glibc-2.0-based SuSE Distributions SuSE-6.0 and 6.1 because Netscape doesn't provide any binaries for the glibc version in these distributions (glibc-2.0). For SuSE-6.0 and 6.1, we provide a libc5-based version of netscape-4.76 which runs smoothly on all i386-based SuSE distributions 6.x and 7.x, provided the package shlibs5 is installed. The package can be found in the update/5.3 directory on our ftp server (see below). There are no packages available for platforms other than i386.

NOTE:
The packages on our ftp servers date back to October 31st. Since there is no release notes or README file with equivalent content in the netscape tarball, SuSE security was not aware of the fact that this release of netscape fixes the known problems. This information can be obtained from (along with information about other bugfixes)
http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/4.7/relnotes/windows-4.76.html .

Please choose the update package(s) for your distribution from the URLs listed below and download the necessary rpm files. Then, install the package using the command `rpm -Uhv file.rpm´. rpm packages have an internal md5 checksum that protects against file corruption. You can verify this checksum using the command (independently from the md5 signatures below)
`rpm --checksig --nogpg file.rpm',
The md5 sums under each package are to prove the package authenticity, independently from the md5 checksums in the rpm package format.

Intel i386 Platform

SuSE-7.0
SuSE-6.4
SuSE-6.3
SuSE-6.2
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/xap1/netscape-4.76.glibc21.i386.rpm
7ccebaca7df0937a3c08fc30a27af858

SuSE-6.1
SuSE-6.0
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/5.3/xap1/netscape-4.76.libc5.i386.rpm
3c4f06c5fea4755083524eb135627380

2) Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

- ssh/openssh

Several inconsistencies and configuration bugs have been introduced in the SuSE rpm packages for the update of openssh (SuSE-SA:2000:47) that cause the openssh software to not work as reliably as usual. The packages are about to be reworked, the openssh announcement will be reissued.

- pidentd

The in.identd daemon on SuSE distributions can be crashed remotely. We're working on a fix.

- bash1

bash, version 1, handles temporary files in an unsafe manner that allows a local attacker to overwrite arbitrary files as the user running a bash1 with input redirection of the "<< EOF" style. The bash1 package is not used per default in SuSE-distributions. We're working on a fix (update packages).

- tcsh

The paragraph above about bash version 1 applies to the tcsh as well, in all versions. The tcsh is not used by SuSE scripts.

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.
- - --

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| 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) |
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