SuSE Security Announcement: esound | Linux Today

SuSE Security Announcement: esound

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Oct 11, 2000

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 19:08:04 +0200 (MEST)
From: Roman Drahtmueller
To: suse-security-announce@suse.de
Subject: [suse-security-announce] SuSE Security Announcement:
esound


                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                esound
        Date:                   Wednesday, October 11th, 2000 19:00 MEST
        Affected SuSE versions: 6.3, 6.4, 7.0
        Vulnerability Type:     local user compromise
        Severity (1-10):        3
        SuSE default package:   yes
        Other affected systems: Linux systems using esound with unix domain
                                socket support

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: esound
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds
        3) standard appendix (further information)

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

esound, a daemon program for the Gnome desktop, is used for
sound replay by various programs such as windowmanagers and other
applications. The esound daemon creates a directory /tmp/.esd to
host a unix domain socket. Upon startup, the daemon changes the
modes of the socket, but a race condition allows an attacker to
place a symlink into the directory to point to an arbitrary file
belonging to the victim. By consequence, an attacker may be able to
change the permissions of any file belonging to the victim. If the
victim’s userid is root, the attacker may be able to change the
modes of any file in the system.

SuSE distributions before SuSE-6.3 were not vulnerable to this
attack because unix domain sockets were not supported by the esound
daemon as shipped with these distributions.

The only efficient solution for the problem is to store the unix
domain socket in a directory where only the user has write access
to. The user’s home directory is such a location.

Update packages that fix the race conditions by placing the
sockets into the user’s home directory are available for download.
It is recommended to apply the fix on systems where multiple users
can access the local filesystem.

Note: Not all filesystems support unix domain sockets. The fix
might not work if the user’s home directory is on such a filesystem
(such as AFS, eg.). In such rare cases, administrators are usually
aware of such limitations. SuSE default installations do not have
this limitation.

Download the update package from locations desribed below and
install the package with the command `rpm -Fhv file.rpm’. The
md5sum for each file is in the line below. You can verify the
integrity of the rpm files using the command
`rpm –checksig –nogpg file.rpm’,
independently from the md5 signatures below.

i386 Intel Platform:

SuSE-7.0

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/snd1/esound-0.2.19-15.i386.rpm

9d8addaa5ba29554a727eb34ae5189f4
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/zq1/esound-0.2.19-15.src.rpm

a9724b99a96430b1b7c1f741a8e8d528

SuSE-6.4

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.4/snd1/esound-0.2.16-75.i386.rpm

6f32f0867d1597a5129d0516438d9cca
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.4/zq1/esound-0.2.16-75.src.rpm

94ca6842981f7a501300d9edfc5cbf73

SuSE-6.3

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.3/snd1/esound-0.2.15-21.i386.rpm

16a5804a2f27e62d73df40d206b047ca
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.3/zq1/esound-0.2.15-21.src.rpm

c86689fd5d9f719135e1263dd5a38832

Sparc Platform:

SuSE-7.0

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.0/snd1/esound-0.2.19-15.sparc.rpm

112648ef64c351952f832b180fcca23c
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.0/zq1/esound-0.2.19-15.src.rpm

a0bb3e3517ca83c13abd6827a8d2295e

AXP Alpha Platform:

SuSE-6.4

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.4/snd1/esound-0.2.16-75.alpha.rpm

d2efefb21a6424a81e63788d972db49d
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.4/zq1/esound-0.2.16-75.src.rpm

a69ebae320c6f118f4b9e07f2a9af4d2

SuSE-6.3

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.3/snd1/esound-0.2.15-21.alpha.rpm

19942e308eda0c0d505bb64da734ad8d
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.3/zq1/esound-0.2.15-21.src.rpm

6f337d6864111d27fa93ef2bc3cb7b5a

PPC Power PC Platform:

SuSE-7.0

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.0/snd1/esound-0.2.19-16.ppc.rpm

be6daabfee0e7e629b848814be81d9d0
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/7.0/zq1/esound-0.2.19-16.src.rpm

c77475b2c8fff104f8662bb9179efb64

SuSE-6.4

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/6.4/snd1/esound-0.2.16-75.ppc.rpm

f0e1aa54c3fdf7c6c02b34bedc51ee0f
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/6.4/zq1/esound-0.2.16-75.src.rpm

9acd25b5521201386bb73bc707382646


2) Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and
Workarounds:

– gnorpm

A race condition has been found in the gnorpm program, a GUI for
the rpm system. The issue will be addressed in a following
announcement.

– ncurses

The ncurses library contains buffer overflows that are
exploitable when user-supplied terminfo databases are processed.
This imposes a security risk on programs/binaries that are linked
against libncurses and run with special privileges. Both workaround
and clean solution is to remove the suid bit from all executable
files with setuid bit set. The issue will be addressed in a
following security announcement.

– apache mod_rewrite

A bug has been discovered in the apache package that allows
attackers to read arbitrary files on a system that runs apache. The
responsible apache module named “mod_rewrite” is not used by
default on SuSE installations of the apache package. The issue will
be addressed in a following security announcement.

– cfengine

A format string parsing bug causes the cfengine package to be
vulnerable to a remote root attack. Update packages are available,
the security announcement is pending.

– usermode/userhelper

userhelper is a suid helper program designed to let the user who
is logged on to the console execute some programs with root
privileges. SuSE distributions do not contain the usermode package
and therefore are not vulnerable to the security problems recently
discovered in the usermode package.

– tmpwatch

The tmpwatch packages as shipped with SuSE distributions are not
vulnerable to the attacks as discussed on security forums because
we ship an older version that does not provide the functionality
that can be exploited.

– lprNG

The versions of the lprNG package that come with SuSE
distributions are not vulnerable to the format string parsing
errors as discussed in security forums.

– traceroute

The traceroute program has been found vulnerable to a bug
(`traceroute -g 1 -g 1′) in many distributions. Newer SuSE
distributions have a different implementation of the traceroute
program and are not vulnerable to the bug found by Pekka Savola .
The vulnerability could not be verified in older SuSE
distributions.


3) standard appendix:

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 annoucements 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.


Regards,
Roman Drahtmüller.
– – —

 -                                                                      -
| Roman Drahtmüller        draht@suse.de //          "Caution: Cape does |
  SuSE GmbH - Security           Phone: //       not enable user to fly."
| Nürnberg, Germany     +49-911-740530 // (Batman Costume warning label) |
 -                                                                      -
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.

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