SUSE Linux Advisory: kernel

SUSE Security Announcement

Package: kernel
Announcement-ID: SUSE-SA:2004:037
Date: Wednesday, Oct 20th 2004 18:00 MEST
Affected products: 9.1 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
Vulnerability Type: remote denial of service
Severity (1-10): 9
SUSE default package: yes
Cross References: CAN-2004-0816 CAN-2004-0887

Content of this advisory:

security vulnerability resolved:
- remote system crash with enabled firewall
- local root exploit on the S/390 platform
- minor /proc information leaks problem description
solution/workaround
special instructions and notes
package location and checksums
pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
- libtiff
- cyrus-sasl
- php4
- zinf

1) problem description, brief discussion

An integer underflow problem in the iptables firewall logging
rules can allow a remote attacker to crash the machine by using a
handcrafted IP packet. This attack is only possible with
firewalling enabled.

We would like to thank Richard Hart for reporting the
problem.

This problem has already been fixed in the 2.6.8 upstream Linux
kernel, this update contains a backport of the fix.

Products running a 2.4 kernel are not affected.

Mitre has assigned the CVE ID CAN-2004-0816 for this
problem.

Additionaly Martin Schwidefsky of IBM found an incorrectly
handled privileged instruction which can lead to a local user
gaining root user privileges.

This only affects the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 on the
S/390 platform and has been assigned CVE ID CAN-2004-0887.

Additionaly the following non-security bugs were fixed:

Two CD burning problems.
USB 2.0 stability problems under high load on SMP systems.
Several SUSE Linux Enterprise Server issues. (see the
Maintenance Information Mail for more informations).

2) solution/workaround

If you are not using an iptables based firewall (like
SUSEfirewall2) on your system, you are not affected.

If you are using a firewall, a workaround is to disable firewall
logging of IP and TCP options.

We recommend to update the kernel.

3) special instructions and notes

SPECIAL INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:

The following paragraphs will guide you through the installation
process in a step-by-step fashion. The character sequence “****”
marks the beginning of a new paragraph. In some cases, the steps
outlined in a particular paragraph may or may not be applicable to
your situation.
Therefore, please make sure to read through all of the steps below
before attempting any of these procedures. All of the commands that
need to be executed are required to be run as the superuser (root).
Each step relies on the steps before it to complete successfully.

Step 1: Determine the needed kernel type
Please use the following command to find the kernel type that is
installed on your system:

rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz

Following are the possible kernel types (disregard the version
and build number following the name separated by the “-”
character)
```
      kernel-64k-pagesize
      kernel-bigsmp
      kernel-default
      kernel-smp
```
Step 2: Download the package for your system
Please download the kernel RPM package for your distribution
with the name as indicated by Step 1. The list of all kernel rpm
packages is appended below. Note: The kernel-source package does
not contain a binary kernel in bootable form. Instead, it contains
the sources that the binary kernel rpm packages are created from.
It can be used by administrators who have decided to build their
own kernel. Since the kernel-source.rpm is an installable
(compiled) package that contains sources for the linux kernel, it
is not the source RPM for the kernel RPM binary packages.

The kernel RPM binary packages for the distributions can be
found at the locations below ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/.

9.1/rpm/i586

After downloading the kernel RPM package for your system, you
should verify the authenticity of the kernel rpm package using the
methods as listed in section 3) of each SUSE Security
Announcement.
Step 3: Installing your kernel rpm package
Install the rpm package that you have downloaded in Steps 3 or 4
with the command

rpm -Uhv –nodeps –force <K_FILE.RPM> where
<K_FILE.RPM> is the name of the rpm package that you
downloaded.

Warning: After performing this step, your system will likely not
be able to boot if the following steps have not been fully
followed.
Step 4: configuring and creating the initrd
The initrd is a ramdisk that is loaded into the memory of your
system together with the kernel boot image by the bootloader. The
kernel uses the content of this ramdisk to execute commands that
must be run before the kernel can mount its actual root filesystem.
It is usually used to initialize SCSI drivers or NIC drivers for
diskless operation.

The variable INITRD_MODULES in /etc/sysconfig/kernel determines
which kernel modules will be loaded in the initrd before the kernel
has mounted its actual root filesystem. The variable should contain
your SCSI adapter (if any) or filesystem driver modules.

With the installation of the new kernel, the initrd has to be
re-packed with the update kernel modules. Please run the
command

mk_initrd

as root to create a new init ramdisk (initrd) for your system.
On SuSE Linux 8.1 and later, this is done automatically when the
RPM is installed.
Step 5: bootloader
If you run a SUSE LINUX 8.x, SLES8, or SUSE LINUX 9.x system,
there are two options:
Depending on your software configuration, you have either the lilo
bootloader or the grub bootloader installed and initialized on your
system.
The grub bootloader does not require any further actions to be
performed after the new kernel images have been moved in place by
the rpm Update command.
If you have a lilo bootloader installed and initialized, then the
lilo program must be run as root. Use the command

grep LOADER_TYPE /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

to find out which boot loader is configured. If it is lilo, then
you must run the lilo command as root. If grub is listed, then your
system does not require any bootloader initialization.

Warning: An improperly installed bootloader may render your
system unbootable.
Step 6: reboot
If all of the steps above have been successfully completed on
your system, then the new kernel including the kernel modules and
the initrd should be ready to boot. The system needs to be rebooted
for the changes to become active. Please make sure that all steps
have completed, then reboot using the command

shutdown -r now
or

init 6

Your system should now shut down and reboot with the new
kernel.

4) package location and checksums

Please download the update package for your distribution and
verify its integrity by the methods listed in section 3) of this
announcement. Then, install the package using the command “rpm -Fhv
file.rpm” to apply the update.
Our maintenance customers are being notified individually. The
packages are being offered to install from the maintenance web.

x86 Platform:

SUSE Linux 9.1:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-default-2.6.5-7.111.i586.rpm
735f99730442772d0caeb1043576da0e

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.111.i586.rpm
8e38495a90203fdeef0167126e9699fd

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.5-7.111.i586.rpm
54474a313ff90c5a5ded8cd3590016ee
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/rpm/src/kernel-default-2.6.5-7.111.nosrc.rpm
60a46f48bbae6989a50d2b3c735cd176

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/rpm/src/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.111.nosrc.rpm
5bc77692dc82521b83378c97d39acd72

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/rpm/src/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.5-7.111.nosrc.rpm
348c5d63b8c26c548d8b5bfcc894b805

x86-64 Platform:

SUSE Linux 9.1:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/x86_64/update/9.1/rpm/x86_64/kernel-default-2.6.5-7.111.x86_64.rpm
53ec1285f8933f79b6e53f2cb4d2094a

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/x86_64/update/9.1/rpm/x86_64/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.111.x86_64.rpm
de3bf18c94d26a2b3477cf11cf723380
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/x86_64/update/9.1/rpm/src/kernel-default-2.6.5-7.111.nosrc.rpm
3e6123bd50f2802cf6a96ccfa2af674f

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/x86_64/update/9.1/rpm/src/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.111.nosrc.rpm
365354d9e91032e53436f949da6ae8f6

5) Pending vulnerabilities in SUSE Distributions and
Workarounds:

libtiff

Several buffer and integer overflows have been found in the
image handling library libtiff by Chris Evans and Dmitry Levin,
recorded under CVE Ids: CAN-2004-0803,CAN-2004-0804,CAN-2004-0886.

We are working on updates and will release them within the next
days.

cyrus-sasl

The SASL_PATH environment variable was also used to load
plugins even with setuid privileges set, which can lead to a local
root privilege escalation.

The default SUSE installation was not found to be affected by
this problem, neithertheless we are in the process of releasing
updates. The CVE ID for this issue is: CAN-2004-0884

php4

File overwrite problems were identified in php4. We have
released updates for this issue. However, due to problems with
php4-recode in combination with php4-mysql we had to withdraw the
update from YaST2 Online Update for some SUSE Linux versions. New
packages will be available soon.

zinf

A tempfile race condition in zinf / freeamp was fixed, packages
are available.

phpMyAdmin

A bug in phpMyAdmin that would allow users to execute arbitrary
commands has been discovered. New packages will be available
soon.

mysql

Several bugs in mysql have been discovered. New packages will
be available soon.

libpng

The issues with libpng described in CAN-2004-0954 and
CAN-2004-0955 where already fixed in the last libpng update. Fixed
packages are therefore already available on our ftp server.

6) standard appendix: authenticity verification, additional
information

Package authenticity verification:
SUSE update packages are available on many mirror ftp servers
all over the world. While this service is being considered valuable
and important to the free and open source software community, many
users wish to be sure about the origin of the package and its
content before installing the package. There are two verification
methods that can be used independently from each other to prove the
authenticity of a downloaded file or rpm package:
1. md5sums as provided in the (cryptographically signed)
  announcement.
2. using the internal gpg signatures of the rpm package.
3. execute the command md5sum <name-of-the-file.rpm> after
  you downloaded the file from a SUSE ftp server or its mirrors.
  Then, compare the resulting md5sum with the one that is listed in
  the announcement. Since the announcement containing the checksums
  is cryptographically signed (usually using the key security@suse.de), the checksums show
  proof of the authenticity of the package. We disrecommend to
  subscribe to security lists which cause the email message
  containing the announcement to be modified so that the signature
  does not match after transport through the mailing list software.
  Downsides: You must be able to verify the authenticity of the
  announcement in the first place. If RPM packages are being rebuilt
  and a new version of a package is published on the ftp server, all
  md5 sums for the files are useless.
4. rpm package signatures provide an easy way to verify the
  authenticity of an rpm package. Use the command rpm -v –checksig
  <file.rpm> to verify the signature of the package, where
  <file.rpm> is the filename of the rpm package that you have
  downloaded. Of course, package authenticity verification can only
  target an un-installed rpm package file. Prerequisites:
  1. gpg is installed
  2. The package is signed using a certain key. The public part of
    this key must be installed by the gpg program in the directory
    ~/.gnupg/ under the user’s home directory who performs the
    signature verification (usually root). You can import the key that
    is used by SUSE in rpm packages for SUSE Linux by saving this
    announcement to a file (“announcement.txt”) and running the command
    (do “su -” to be root): gpg –batch; gpg < announcement.txt |
    gpg –import SUSE Linux distributions version 7.1 and thereafter
    install the key “build@suse.de”
    upon installation or upgrade, provided that the package gpg is
    installed. The file containing the public key is placed at the
    top-level directory of the first CD (pubring.gpg) and at ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/pubring.gpg-build.suse.de
    .
SUSE runs two security mailing lists to which any interested
party may subscribe:

suse-security@suse.com
general/linux/SUSE security discussion. All SUSE security
announcements are sent to this list. To subscribe, send an email to

<suse-security-subscribe@suse.com>.

suse-security-announce@suse.com
SUSE’s announce-only mailing list.
Only SUSE’s security announcements are sent to this list. To
subscribe, send an email to

<suse-security-announce-subscribe@suse.com>.

For general information or the frequently asked questions (faq)
send mail to:

<suse-security-info@suse.com>
or
<suse-security-faq@suse.com>
respectively.

SUSE’s security contact is <security@suse.com> or
<security@suse.de>. The
<security@suse.de>
public key is listed below.

The information in this advisory may be distributed or
reproduced, provided that the advisory is not modified in any way.
In particular, it is desired that the clear-text signature shows
proof of the authenticity of the text.
SUSE Linux AG makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with
respect to the information contained in this security advisory.

Type Bits/KeyID Date User ID
pub 2048R/3D25D3D9 1999-03-06 SuSE Security Team <security@suse.de>
pub 1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <build@suse.de>

SUSE Linux Advisory: kernel

SPECIAL INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:

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