SuSE Security Announcement: gnorpm | Linux Today

SuSE Security Announcement: gnorpm

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Oct 16, 2000

Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 16:00:09 +0200 (MEST)
From: Roman Drahtmueller draht@suse.de
To: suse-security-announce@suse.de
Subject: [suse-security-announce] SuSE Security Announcement:
gnorpm (SuSE-SA:2000:040)


                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                gnorpm
        Advisory-ID:            SuSE-SA:2000:040
        Date:                   Monday, October 16th, 2000 15:45 MEST
        Affected SuSE versions: 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0
        Vulnerability Type:     tmp race / local file overwrite
        Severity (1-10):        4
        SuSE default package:   no
        Other affected systems: Systems using gnorpm

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: gnorpm
           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

gnorpm is a graphical user interface to the rpm subsystem for
the gnome desktop.

Insecure temporary file handling may cause the gnorpm package to
overwrite arbitrary files on the system. As a workaround solution
it is recommended to make sure that no active user processes on the
system while performing software updates with gnorpm. This can be
accomplished by bringing the linux system down to runlevel 1
(multi-user without network) and starting the network by hand
(rci4l_hardware start; rci4l start;rcnetwork start; rcroute
start).

IMPORTANT NOTE:
SuSE provides update packages for the vulnerable gnorpm package.
However, tests have revealed that the new gnorpm version from Alan
Cox does not work reliably with the rpm subsystem in older SuSE
distributions. Adding patches to these gnorpm versions has proven
to not increase the reliability of the package either. For this
reason we do not provide update packages for the SuSE distributions
prior to (and including) SuSE-6.3. Please update your system to a
more recent base installation (SuSE-7.0 recommended) or use the
workaround as described above if you need to use gnorpm in a multi
user and possibly hostile environment.

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/gnm3/gnorpm-0.95-3.i386.rpm

6aa5ea031f48d903bf3fb4e2328fc4c7
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/zq1/gnorpm-0.95-3.src.rpm

a6df0b51a50b0f82a1d0e77d46587d82

SuSE-6.4

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.4/gnm3/gnorpm-0.95-3.i386.rpm

2f47a772c634c35d989078287668e67d
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.4/zq1/gnorpm-0.95-3.src.rpm

04a7c41f0537ef513495efc49c105b1b

Sparc Platform:

SuSE-7.0

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.0/gnm3/gnorpm-0.9-159.sparc.rpm

467a2839f7df52c31eb42b97ebb8dd0d
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/update/7.0/zq1/gnorpm-0.9-159.src.rpm

eb09af61e93eab32a55c6538d0b45bc4

AXP Alpha Platform:

SuSE-6.4

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.4/gnm3/gnorpm-0.95-4.alpha.rpm

b99a121e1469f958413b26eef1fd7ce9
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.4/zq1/gnorpm-0.95-4.src.rpm

a65ba20f86d5d0693ecc3e77520ff584

PPC Power PC Platform:

SuSE-6.4

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/6.4/gnm3/gnorpm-0.95-3.ppc.rpm

9ad07eb2c2c437ed427d8ec5cb2b8439
source rpm:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/6.4/zq1/gnorpm-0.95-3.src.rpm

ffdb55e153b7e07cad91830eafb088b9


2) Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and
Workarounds:

A set of security announcements is following this advisory.


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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