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SuSE Security Announcement: cupsMar 05, 2001, 21:12 (0 Talkback[s])(Other stories by Sebastian Krahmer) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 15:12:06 +0100 SuSE Security Announcement Package: cups Announcement-ID: SuSE-SA:2001:05 Date: Monday, March 5th, 2001 13:10:13 MET Affected SuSE versions: 7.1 Vulnerability Type: local/remote root compromise Severity (1-10): 5 SuSE default package: no Other affected systems: All UN*X-systems using cups < 1.1.6. Content of this advisory: 1) security vulnerability resolved: cups 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 CUPS is an implementation of the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) and is used as an alternative to the lpr and LPRng packages. The CUPS package aims to be a comprehensive printing solution for UN*X-systems. In SuSE-7.1 distribution, the cups package is not used by any configuration utilities unless the admin has decided to configure the package manually. The cups package has been introduced in the SuSE-7.1 distribution; enhanced support for future releases of the SuSE Linux distribution is planned. A SuSE-internal security audit conducted by Sebastian Krahmer and Thomas Biege revealed several overflows as well as insecure file handling. These bugs have been fixed by adding length-checks and securing the file-access. For a temporary workaround, remove the suid-bit from the 'lppasswd' program. Make sure nobody from outside your network can access the CUPS-server running on port 631. Allowing access to this port from outside is a bad idea regardless whether or not the used version is vulnerable. No remote-exploits are known yet. Download the update package from locations desribed below and install the package with the command `rpm -Uhv 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-7.1 2) Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds: Effective Monday, March 19 2001, five weeks after the release of the new SuSE-7.1 distribution, SuSE will discontinue support for the SuSE-linux distributions SuSE-6.0 SuSE-6.1 and SuSE-6.2. SuSE puts much effort into adding security improvements (patches) to the software instead of publishing a new version; the same program with a fix for a specific problem promises to work just as reliable as the original version from the distribution, whereas new versions introduce new functionality which changes the behaviour. In some cases however, especially if the security leak is based on problematic design decisions or when the fix(es) are fairly large, the only reasonable fix for a security problem is to update to a newer version of the software. These newer versions tend to become incompatible with our older distribution releases because of missing features in the operating system environment. This forces us to focus on the distributions of a newer release date. The remaining distributions SuSE-6.3, SuSE-6.4, SuSE-7.0 and SuSE-7.1for the Intel i386, AXP Alpha, SPARC as well as PPC Power PC platforms will continue to be supported for a two-year period after the release of the respective distribution. 3) standard appendix: SuSE runs two security mailing lists to which any interested party may subscribe: suse-security@suse.com suse-security-announce@suse.com For general information or the frequently asked questions (faq)
send mail to: SuSE's security contact is security@suse.com. Regards, Sebastian Krahmer |