Debian Security Advisory: New Debian cron packages released | Linux Today

Debian Security Advisory: New Debian cron packages released

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Nov 18, 2000

Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 22:33:37 -0500
From: Daniel Jacobowitz dan@debian.org
To: debian-security-announce@lists.debian.org
Subject: [SECURITY] New Debian cron packages released


Debian Security Advisory                                        security@debian.org
http://www.debian.org/security/                           Daniel Jacobowitz
November 17, 2000  

Package: cron
Vulnerability: local priviledge escalation
Debian-specific: no
Vulnerable: yes

The version of Vixie Cron shipped with Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 is
vulnerable to a local attack, discovered by Michal Zalewski.
Several problems, including insecure permissions on temporary files
and race conditions in their deletion, allowed attacks from a
denial of service (preventing the editing of crontabs) to an
escalation of priviledge (when another user edited their
crontab).

As a temporary fix, “chmod go-rx /var/spool/cron/crontabs”
prevents the only available exploit; however, it does not address
the problem. We recommend upgrading to version 3.0pl1-57.1, for
Debian 2.2, or 3.0pl1-61, for Debian unstable.

Also, in the new cron packages, it is no longer possible to
specify special files (devices, named pipes, etc.) by name to
crontab. Note that this is not so much a security fix as a sanity
check.

Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 alias slink


Slink is no longer being supported by the Debian Security Team.
We highly recommend an upgrade to the current stable release.

Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (stable) alias potato


Fixes are currently available for the Alpha, ARM, Intel ia32,
Motorola 680×0, PowerPC and Sun SPARC architectures, and will be
included in 2.2r2.

Source archives:

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/source/cron_3.0pl1-57.1.diff.gz

MD5 checksum: 4fac4be2841908090d1c877a65cf5ef9

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/source/cron_3.0pl1-57.1.dsc

MD5 checksum: caed3f1556203618544eec823347df30

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/source/cron_3.0pl1.orig.tar.gz

MD5 checksum: 4c64aece846f8483daf440f8e3dd210f

Alpha architecture:

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-alpha/cron_3.0pl1-57.1_alpha.deb

MD5 checksum: 3b146f5227182343d3b20cf8fce8a86c

Advertisement

ARM architecture:

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-arm/cron_3.0pl1-57.1_arm.deb

MD5 checksum: 559e80e83abf371a8d09759ee900daf5

Intel IA32 architecture:

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-arm/cron_3.0pl1-57.1_i386.deb

MD5 checksum: 922bb72b07a05fb888771364697f52e1

Motorola 680×0 architecture:

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-m68k/cron_3.0pl1-57.1_m68k.deb

MD5 checksum: 2e0d8152ec03a66bb88ba84215fe4de3

PowerPC architecture:

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-powerpc/cron_3.0pl1-57.1_powerpc.deb

MD5 checksum: 16ad8c4a26436239e7a25260340be6d5

Sun Sparc architecture:

http://security.debian.org/dists/potato/updates/main/binary-sparc/cron_3.0pl1-57.1_sparc.deb

MD5 checksum: 2bd401a635eedc47e9f6dd1652f71e35

Debian GNU/Linux Unstable alias woody


This version of Debian is not yet released.

Fixes will be made available for Alpha, ARM, Intel ia32,
Motorola 680×0, PowerPC, and SPARC in the Debian archive over the
next several days.


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

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.