SuSE Linux Advisory: pine

SuSE Security Announcement

Content of this advisory:

1. security vulnerability resolved: An integer overflow and a
   buffer overflow in the pine mail reader. problem description,
   discussion, solution and upgrade information
2. pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
   • gkrellmd
   • gdm2
   • kernel/PPC64
   • whois
   • xfs
   • postgresql
3. standard appendix (further information)

1. problem description, brief discussion, solution, upgrade
   information

The well known and widely used mail client pine is vulnerable to
a buffer overflow. The vulnerability exists in the code processing
‘message/external-body’ type messages. It allows remote attackers
to execute arbitrary commands as the user running pine.
Additionally an integer overflow in the MIME header parsing code
has been fixed.

Since there is no workaround, an update is strongly recommended
for pine users.

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.

Intel i386 Platform:

SuSE-8.2:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.2/rpm/i586/pine-4.53-109.i586.rpm
c3d94808af56ac9fcc77bec85733bc47
patch rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.2/rpm/i586/pine-4.53-109.i586.patch.rpm
fff680da5c283d2d50a44419976881a8
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.2/rpm/src/pine-4.53-109.src.rpm
327935d468b4cd7794dde00168a901c3

SuSE-8.1:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/i586/pine-4.44-283.i586.rpm
63bc3f723537b18a274404c9b30ea784
patch rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/i586/pine-4.44-283.i586.patch.rpm
1d4711753488a274c8cf168b24c91acf
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/src/pine-4.44-283.src.rpm
9617c79c854c2b800df476aa515ae351

SuSE-8.0:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.0/n1/pine-4.44-281.i386.rpm
edea9fbbf85a9f922d2b2aa8bf4a14e8
patch rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.0/n1/pine-4.44-281.i386.patch.rpm
18c95a919fb8767f3cff10218ce6c08c
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.0/zq1/pine-4.44-281.src.rpm
6bf6b39feed23892faceaa78fd13b751

SuSE-7.3:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.3/n1/pine-4.33-280.i386.rpm
65d24983aa99d276e75ccd557eee557b
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.3/zq1/pine-4.33-280.src.rpm
b0ecee1170d1fdec3b22e98d0941071a

SuSE-7.2:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.2/n1/pine-4.33-279.i386.rpm
574ae6efcf81a53a26d5d19b763f96ab
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.2/zq1/pine-4.33-279.src.rpm
14fbade46db5dbc9c9893cf507d57e4a

Sparc Platform:

SuSE-7.3:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.3/n1/pine-4.33-101.sparc.rpm
4e90502bfc4ca5b49c20f8a10cb9d473
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.3/zq1/pine-4.33-101.src.rpm
c600432ad453999aa329b836490842df

PPC Power PC Platform:

SuSE-7.3:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.3/n1/pine-4.33-153.ppc.rpm
0c4323f70d9cc8b95d35f4356351990c
source rpm(s):

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.3/zq1/pine-4.33-153.src.rpm
6f6987ad3110ff3bf0bd5edb08ee935a

2) Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and
Workarounds:

• gkrellmd The gkrellmd, part of the gkrellm package, contains a
  buffer overflow. Only the gkrellm package shipped with SL 8.2 is
  vulnerable. New update packages will be available on our FTP
  servers soon.
• gdm2 The Gnome Display Manager (GDM) contains a bug which
  allows local attackers to view any file on the system. Fixed
  packages will be available on our FTP servers soon.
• kernel/PPC64 A locally exploitable vulnerability in the kernel
  for SLES 8 PowerPC based IBM iSeries Systems allows an attacker to
  overwrite arbitrary kernel memory. Update packages are being
  published on our maintenance web, and our customers are being
  notified individually.
• whois A buffer overflow exists in the whois command. New
  packages will be available on our FTP servers soon.
• xfs The X font server (xfs) contains various integer overflows
  which could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands.
  SuSE products do not enable xfs by default, but the update packages
  should be installed as soon as they are available on our FTP
  servers.
• postgresql The SQL database server postgresql of version 7.3.x
  prior 7.3.4 is vulnerable to buffer overflow attacks. New packages
  will be available soon.

3) 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 [email protected]), 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 “[email protected]”
      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:
  [email protected]
  • general/linux/SuSE security discussion. All SuSE security
    announcements are sent to this list. To subscribe, send an email
    to
    <[email protected]>.

  [email protected]

  • SuSE’s announce-only mailing list. Only SuSE’s security
    announcements are sent to this list. To subscribe, send an email
    to
    <[email protected]>.

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

<[email protected]>
or
<[email protected]>
respectively.

SuSE’s security contact is <[email protected]> or
<[email protected]>. The
<[email protected]>
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.

Bye,

Thomas Biege