SuSE Linux Advisory: susehelp

____________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                susehelp
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2003:005
        Date:                   Mon Jan 20 14:00:00 CET 2003
        Affected products:      SuSE Linux 8.1,
                                SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8,
                                SuSE Linux Office Server,
                                SuSE Linux Openexchange Server 4
        Vulnerability Type:     remote command execution
        Severity (1-10):        5
        SuSE default package:   no
        Cross References:       -

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: Remote command execution due
           to broken filtering of shell metacharacters in CGI queries.
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds: mod_php4
        3) standard appendix (further information)

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

    During a code review of the susehelp package the SuSE Security Team
    recognized that the security checks done by the susehelp CGI scripts are
    insufficient.
      Remote attackers can insert certain characters in CGI queries to the
    susehelp system tricking it into executing arbitrary code as the "wwwrun"
    user. Please note that this is only a vulnerability if you have a web server
    running and configured to allow access to the susehelp system by remote
    sites.
      We nevertheless recommend an update of this package. As a temporary
    workaround you may un-install the susehelp package by issuing the following
    command as root:

      rpm -e --nodeps susehelp


    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.


    SuSE-8.1:
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/noarch/susehelp-2002.09.05-51.noarch.rpm
      6dde3d487385fd6a935643b1a0d92b86
    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/8.1/rpm/noarch/susehelp-SLOD-2002.09.05-2.noarch.rpm
      cd91f786f056518a11192b1ce9597783

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2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - mod_php4
    A buffer overflow in the wordwrap() function has been reported.
    New packages will be prepared and should be availble soon on our ftp
    servers.

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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.

    1) 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.

    2) 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:
        a) gpg is installed
        b) 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.

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  2048R/3D25D3D9 1999-03-06 SuSE Security Team <[email protected]>
pub  1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <[email protected]>

- -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org