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August 3rd, 2000
This notice addresses the latest security advisories from various
Linux Vendors as well as private contributors.
The list of packages:
netscape
knfsd
system user account nobody
pam_console
gpm
openldap
mailman
cvsweb.cgi
kon2
<p>There will be SuSE Security Announcements for the packages where work is
in progress as indicated in the respective section below.
<p><p>* jpeg buffer overflows in netscape:
The latest version of netscape is currently being tested. SuSE netscape
rpms contain efficient workarounds against some "morbid" properties of
netscape - it is necessary to provide stable packages. These additions
are being reworked right now.
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* rpc.kstatd
The SuSE package containing rpc.kstatd (other vendors named it
rpc.statd) is called knfsd.rpm. An updated package is currently
being tested.
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* user `nobody's HOME directory set to / and misconfigured webservers:
SuSE Linux used to have user nobody's HOME directory set to /tmp for
years. Starting with SuSE-7.0, it will be set to /var/lib/nobody .
Apache, as distributed with SuSE, is configured `UserDir public_html'
and is therefore not vulnerable for the http://machine/~nobody/-problem.
However, we encourage admins to change this user's home using the
commands
mkdir -p /var/lib/nobody
chown nobody.nogroup /var/lib/nobody
usermod -d /var/lib/nobody
Make sure that you move files belonging to user nobody from the former
location to the new home and that you don't rely on the old absolute
path in your scripts.
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* problems around pam_console:
SuSE Linux does not contain the said pam-module because it isn't
included in the official pam release. The idea of it is intriguing, but
we have decided not to include the module into the distribution as a
consequence of the problems that accompany its use.
See Linux-Mandrake Security Update Advisory ID MDKSA-2000:029.
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* gpm DoS, setgid() return value:
We ship a slightly older version of gpm because of some grief with the
latest versions. The vulnerabilities in gpm have been addressed to the
fully necessary extent back in April 5.
As mentioned above, there is no pam_console module that could change the
ownerships of the gpm control socket /dev/gpmctl. By consequence, a
local denial of service attack against gpm is possible. However, we
believe that the most effective measure against this is userdel(8),
since hogging disk space/performance, CPU, bandwidth etc is still
possible in the wild even with appropriate permissions on the gpm
socket.
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* modes of openldap package files:
The files are installed 755 or 644.
There is no problem with this package in SuSE-Linux.
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* mailman problem
cvsweb.cgi (TurboLinux Advisory ID#: TLSA2000016-1):
kon2 (Linux-Mandrake Security Update Advisory ID: MDKSA-2000:028)
SuSE-Linux either does not contain these packages or the files therein
causing the publically announced security vulnerabilities.
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<p><p>Regards,
Roman Drahtmüller.
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| Roman Drahtmüller