Fedora Core Advisory: utempter

---

Fedora Update Notification
FEDORA-2004-108
2004-04-21

---

Name : utempter
Version : 0.5.5
Release : 3.FC1.0
Summary : A privileged helper for utmp/wtmp updates.

Description :
Utempter is a utility which allows some non-privileged programs to
have required root access without compromising system security.
Utempter accomplishes this feat by acting as a buffer between root
and the programs.

---

Update Information:

Topic:
An updated utempter package that fixes a potential symlink
vulnerability is now available.

Problem Description:
Utempter is a utility that allows terminal applications such as
xterm and screen to update utmp and wtmp without requiring root
privileges.

Steve Grubb discovered a flaw in Utempter which allowed device
names containing directory traversal sequences such as ‘/../’. In
combination with an application that trusts the utmp or wtmp files,
this could allow a local attacker the ability to overwrite
privileged files using a symlink.

Users should upgrade to this new version of utempter, which
fixes this vulnerability.

---

* Tue Apr 20 2004 Mike A. Harris <mharris@redhat.com> 0.5.5-4

• Build 0.5.5-1 version as 0.5.5-1.2.1EL.0 for RHEL 2.1
  erratum
• Build 0.5.5-1 version as 0.5.5-1.3EL.0 for RHEL 3 erratum
• Build 0.5.5-1 version as 0.5.5-2.RHL9.0 for RHL 9 erratum
• Build 0.5.5-1 version as 0.5.5-3.FC1.0 for Fedora Core 1
  erratum
• Build 0.5.5-1 version as 0.5.5-4 for Fedora Core 2 development
  head

• Mon Apr 19 2004 Mike A. Harris <mharris@redhat.com> 0.5.5-1
  • [SECURITY] Fix CAN-2004-0233 utempter directory traversal
    symlink attack issue for immediate erratum release.
  • Build all-arch test package 0.5.5-1 in dist-fc2-scratch
• Mon Feb 23 2004 Mike A. Harris <mharris@redhat.com> 0.5.4-1
  • Rewrote post install script to be a bit cleaner and rebuilt in
    rawhide to pick up twaugh’s chown change
  • Added ‘srpm-x’ target to Makefile for package maintainer SRPM
    building
• Mon Feb 23 2004 Tim Waugh <twaugh@redhat.com>
  • Use ‘:’ instead of ‘.’ as separator for chown.

---

This update can be downloaded from:

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/1/

f7183d6339a8bdaa5b42a55b9bf1915a
SRPMS/utempter-0.5.5-3.FC1.0.src.rpm
6d211a469244cd656fcff3464d00e3e0
i386/utempter-0.5.5-3.FC1.0.i386.rpm
86e078c46a04eceb0c5e05f6a428214d
i386/debug/utempter-debuginfo-0.5.5-3.FC1.0.i386.rpm
f5946681eddc62e62296e64b29f176a8
x86_64/utempter-0.5.5-3.FC1.0.x86_64.rpm
fbd974095834794b31aa89aa50d14d90
x86_64/debug/utempter-debuginfo-0.5.5-3.FC1.0.x86_64.rpm

This update can also be installed with the Update Agent; you can
launch the Update Agent with the ‘up2date’ command.

---