Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 16:08:22 -0700
From: FreeBSD Security Advisories security-advisories@freebsd.org
To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS.COM
Subject: FreeBSD Ports Security Advisory:
FreeBSD-SA-00:28.majordomo
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FreeBSD-SA-00:28 Security Advisory
FreeBSD, Inc.
Topic: majordomo is not safe to run on multi-user machines
Category: ports
Module: majordomo
Announced: 2000-07-05
Affects: Ports collection.
Corrected: See below
Vendor status: Problem documented
FreeBSD only: NO
I. Background
Majordomo is a popular mailing-list manager.
II. Problem Description
Majordomo contains a number of perl scripts which are executed
by a setuid wrapper for providing mailing-list management
functionality. However there are numerous weaknesses in these
scripts which allow unprivileged users to run arbitrary commands as
the majordomo user, as well as obtaining read and write access to
the mailing list data.
The majordomo port is not installed by default, nor is it “part
of FreeBSD” as such: it is part of the FreeBSD ports collection,
which contains over 3400 third-party applications in a
ready-to-install format.
FreeBSD makes no claim about the security of these third-party
applications, although an effort is underway to provide a security
audit of the most security-critical ports.
III. Impact
Unprivileged local users can run commands as the ‘majordomo’
user, including accessing and modifying mailing-list subscription
data.
If you have not chosen to install the majordomo port/package,
then your system is not vulnerable to this problem.
IV. Workaround
Deinstall the majordomo port/package, if you you have installed
it, or limit the permissions of the majordomo/ directory and/or its
contents appropriately (see below).
V. Solution
Since the vendor has chosen not to fix the various security
holes in the default installation of majordomo, there is no simple
solution. It may be possible to adequately secure the majordomo
installation while retaining required functionality, by tightening
the permissions on the /usr/local/majordomo directory and/or its
contents, but these actions are not taken by the FreeBSD port and
are beyond the scope of this advisory.
Instead we recommend that majordomo not be used on a system
which contains untrusted users, or an alternative mailing-list
manager be used. There are several such utilities in the FreeBSD
ports collection.
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