SuSE Linux Advisory: apcupsd
Mar 26, 2003, 20:27 (0 Talkback[s])
____________________________________________________________________________
SuSE Security Announcement
Package: apcupsd
Announcement-ID: SuSE-SA:2003:022
Date: Wednesday, Mar 26th 2003 14:00 MET
Affected products: 7.3, 8.0, 8.1
Vulnerability Type: remote system compromise
Severity (1-10): 3
SuSE default package: no
Cross References: CAN-2003-0098
CAN-2003-0099
Content of this advisory:
1) security vulnerability resolved:
- several buffer overflows
- several format bugs
problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
- glibc
- rxvt
- vnc
- openssl
3) standard appendix (further information)
____________________________________________________________________________
1) problem description, brief discussion, solution, upgrade information
The controlling and management daemon apcupsd for APC's Unbreakable
Power Supplies is vulnerable to several buffer overflows and format
bugs. These bugs can be exploited remotely by an attacker to gain
root access to the machine apcupsd is running on.
There is no temporary fix known.
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.
Intel i386 Platform:
SuSE-8.1:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/i586/apcupsd-3.8.6-17.i586.rpm
4a6e718edf75219769dcbc8d42d78586
patch rpm(s):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/i586/apcupsd-3.8.6-17.i586.patch.rpm
1e7a3656b82dd626add69b9473b87e1c
source rpm(s):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/src/apcupsd-3.8.6-17.src.rpm
7dd06d1bcefa78bd25eaa512bcbaa67e
SuSE-8.0:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.0/ap4/apcupsd-3.8.6-16.i386.rpm
6ed48e7150f88da8dea856a96ed66cd9
patch rpm(s):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.0/ap4/apcupsd-3.8.6-16.i386.patch.rpm
186dc6bc26808bb0d71d697c5b2152ec
source rpm(s):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.0/zq1/apcupsd-3.8.6-16.src.rpm
d0671be38f7fe29a2c7bfd3950673af3
SuSE-7.3:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.3/ap2/apcupsd-3.8.2-70.i386.rpm
4e19d2e227716a5dbd56eeda5bbe3e3f
source rpm(s):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.3/zq1/apcupsd-3.8.2-70.src.rpm
9d80af6c213025944aecf5d08449c552
Sparc Platform:
SuSE-7.3:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.3/ap2/apcupsd-3.8.2-30.sparc.rpm
e76823753f5ae5446be78362d9d0ad47
source rpm(s):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.3/zq1/apcupsd-3.8.2-30.src.rpm
9e1295c038d72e96ae3c68a4755f46e8
PPC Power PC Platform:
SuSE-7.3:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.3/ap2/apcupsd-3.8.2-56.ppc.rpm
c692b7d1fbf221a1f6f714789f32bada
source rpm(s):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.3/zq1/apcupsd-3.8.2-56.src.rpm
65d0a076d147b91133bc1a820711147b
____________________________________________________________________________
2) Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:
- glibc
SuSE Security is working on glibc updates for the RPC XDR integer overflow
security problem in glibc. The central function of the glibc package in a
Linux system requires extensive testing of the update packages. The update
packages will be provided for download at the usual location and
publically announced as soon as the testing is completed successfully.
- rxvt
A new version of the rxvt packages was put on our FTP servers.
This version fix' the handling of dangerous escape-sequences.
- vnc
VNC (Virtual Network Computing) uses a weak cookie generation process
which can be exploited by an attacker to bypass authentication.
New packages are currently being tested and will be available on our
FTP servers soon.
- openssl
A paper regarding remote timing attacks against OpenSSL has been
published by researchers of the Stanford University. It is possible
to extract the private RSA key used by services using OpenSSL by
observing their timing behavior. Fixed packages will be available
on our FTP servers soon.
____________________________________________________________________________
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 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
<<A HREF="mailto:suse-security-subscribe@suse.com">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
<<A HREF="mailto:suse-security-announce-subscribe@suse.com">suse-security-announce-subscribe@suse.com>.
For general information or the frequently asked questions (faq)
send mail to:
<<A HREF="mailto:suse-security-info@suse.com">suse-security-info@suse.com> or
<<A HREF="mailto:suse-security-faq@suse.com">suse-security-faq@suse.com> respectively.
=====================================================================
SuSE's security contact is <<A HREF="mailto:security@suse.com">security@suse.com> or <<A HREF="mailto:security@suse.de">security@suse.de>.
The <<A HREF="mailto:security@suse.de">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 <<A HREF="mailto:security@suse.de">security@suse.de>
pub 1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <<A HREF="mailto:build@suse.de">build@suse.de>
Bye,
Thomas
--
Thomas Biege <<A HREF="mailto:thomas@suse.de">thomas@suse.de>
SuSE Linux AG,Deutschherrnstr. 15-19,90429 Nuernberg
Function: Security Support & Auditing
"lynx -source http://www.suse.de/~thomas/contact/thomas.asc | gpg --import"
Key fingerprint = 7254 B15D B3C4 943F 485E 0BBD 8ECC D7CB C200 A213
