Debian Security Advisory: cron local root exploit

From:   Wichert Akkerman <wichert@cistron.nl>
Subject:        [SECURITY] [DSA-054-1] cron local root exploit
Date:   07 May 2001 14:11:21 +0200

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Debian Security Advisory DSA-054-1                   security@debian.org
http://www.debian.org/security/                         Wichert Akkerman
May  7, 2001
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Package        : cron
Problem type   : local root exploit
Debian-specific:  no

A recent (fall 2000) security fix to cron introduced an error in giving
up privileges before invoking the editor.  A malicious user could
easily gain root access.

This has been fixed in version 3.0pl1-57.3 (or 3.0pl1-67 for unstable).
No exploits are known to exist, but we recommend that you upgrade your
cron packages immediately.

wget url
        will fetch the file for you
dpkg -i file.deb
        will install the referenced file.


Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 alias potato
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  Potato was released for alpha, arm, i386, m68k, powerpc and sparc.

  Source archives:
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/cron_3.0pl1-57.3.diff.gz
      MD5 checksum: beef030f2642e0e3178cc1fcddd3601f
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/cron_3.0pl1-57.3.dsc
      MD5 checksum: 898496ede6e71287a50acabd0a9bfdc0
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/source/cron_3.0pl1.orig.tar.gz
      MD5 checksum: 4c64aece846f8483daf440f8e3dd210f

  Alpha architecture:
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-alpha/cron_3.0pl1-57.3_alpha.deb
      MD5 checksum: b056a55f3d51d92390f6e4b7c09f8108

  ARM architecture:
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-arm/cron_3.0pl1-57.3_arm.deb
      MD5 checksum: 0ebd5904db1e137caa53e83d085f5973

  Intel ia32 architecture:
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-i386/cron_3.0pl1-57.3_i386.deb
      MD5 checksum: 6a11a3427bd263429f8189054b67add7

  Motorola 680x0 architecture:
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-m68k/cron_3.0pl1-57.3_m68k.deb
      MD5 checksum: eb9993da9cc3c5d5188866ca453c0ab7

  PowerPC architecture:
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-powerpc/cron_3.0pl1-57.3_powerpc.deb
      MD5 checksum: 17d1109ce6eeb714a09f864bb244f804

  Sun Sparc architecture:
    http://security.debian.org/dists/stable/updates/main/binary-sparc/cron_3.0pl1-57.3_sparc.deb
      MD5 checksum: 9486a5eaa675ada6a5bbfaca2fa2a9ef

  These packages will be moved into the stable distribution on its next
  revision.

For not yet released architectures please refer to the appropriate
directory ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/sid/binary-$arch/ .

- -- 
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apt-get: deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main
dpkg-ftp: ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security dists/stable/updates/main
Mailing list: debian-security-announce@lists.debian.org