MCI Telecommunications internetMCI Security Group Report Title: iMCI MIIGS Security Alert Report Name: HP-UX sendmail exposure Report Number: iMCISE:IMCICIAC:021997:01:P1R2 Report Date: 02/19/97 Report Format: Formal Report Classification: MCI Informational Report Reference: http://www.security.mci.net Report Distribution: iMCI Security, MCI Internal Internet Gateway Security (MIIGS), MCI Emergency Alert LiSt (MEALS) (names on file) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- __________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN HP-UX sendmail Patches Vulnerability February 13, 1997 00:00 GMT Number H-29 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: A vulnerability exists in sendmail patches recently released. PLATFORM: HP 9000 Series 700/800s running versions of HP-UX 9.X thru 10.10. DAMAGE: This vulnerability may allow local users to gain root privileges. SOLUTION: Cleanse the password file as noted below. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY Exploit details involving this vulnerability have been made ASSESSMENT: publicly available. ______________________________________________________________________________ [ Start Hewlett-Packard Advisory ] ============================================================================ === Document Id: [HPSBUX9701-054] Date Loaded: [02-12-97] Description: Recent sendmail patches for HP-UX releases 9.X thru 10.10 ============================================================================ === - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEWLETT-PACKARD SECURITY ADVISORY: #00054, 11 February 1997 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information in the following Security Advisory should be acted upon as soon as possible. Hewlett Packard will not be liable for any consequences to any customer resulting from customer's failure to fully implement instructions in this Security Advisory as soon as possible. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROBLEM: Recent sendmail patches for HP-UX releases 9.X thru 10.10 PLATFORM: HP 9000 Series 700/800s running versions of HP-UX 9.X thru 10.10 DAMAGE: Allows unauthorized access. SOLUTION: Cleanse the password file as noted below on any machines which have ever had the following sendmail patches installed: PHNE_9621 on all platforms with HP-UX releases 9.X, PHNE_9622 on all platforms with HP-UX releases 10.00, 10.01, and 10.10, PHNE_10033 on all platforms with HP-UX releases 9.X, NOTE HP-UX release 10.20 is not affected AVAILABILITY: N/A - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. A. Background Since December 1996 three specific sendmail patches (PHNE_9621, PHNE_10033, and PHNE_9622) have been released by Hewlett-Packard Company. If installed, they incorrectly added new user and group entries in the password and group files. NOTE: HP-UX release 10.20 is not affected by this issue. B. Recommended solution The system administrator needs to perform the following commands on the command line only. Do not use SAM to fix this issue at this time. grep '^sm[0-9]*' /etc/passwd The suspect entries have a ",.." in the password field. That ",.." entry needs to be replaced with a "*". The change can be easily done with vipw (1M). Simply removing the patch will not remove these erroneous entries from the password file. The action above needs to be taken whether or not the patch is removed. C. To subscribe to automatically receive future NEW HP Security Bulletins from the HP SupportLine Digest service via electronic mail, do the following: 1) From your Web browser, access the URL: http://us-support.external.hp.com (US,Canada, Asia-Pacific, and Latin-America) http://europe-support.external.hp.com (Europe) 2) On the HP Electronic Support Center main screen, select the hyperlink "Support Information Digests". 3) On the "Welcome to HP's Support Information Digests" screen, under the heading "Register Now", select the appropriate hyperlink "Americas and Asia-Pacific", or "Europe". 4) On the "New User Registration" screen, fill in the fields for the User Information and Password and then select the button labeled "Submit New User". 5) On the "User ID Assigned" screen, select the hyperlink "Support Information Digests". ** Note what your assigned user ID and password are for future reference. 6) You should now be on the "HP Support Information Digests Main" screen. You might want to verify that your email address is correct as displayed on the screen. From this screen, you may also view/subscribe to the digests, including the security bulletins digest. To get a patch matrix of current HP-UX and BLS security patches referenced by either Security Bulletin or Platform/OS, click on following screens in order: Technical Knowledge Database Browse Security Bulletins Security Bulletins Archive HP-UX Security Patch Matrix D. To report new security vulnerabilities, send email to security-alert@hp.com Please encrypt any exploit information using the security-alert PGP key, available from your local key server, or by sending a message with a -subject- (not body) of 'get key' (no quotes) to security-alert@hp.com. Permission is granted for copying and circulating this Bulletin to Hewlett-Packard (HP) customers (or the Internet community) for the purpose of alerting them to problems, if and only if, the Bulletin is not edited or changed in any way, is attributed to HP, and provided such reproduction and/or distribution is performed for non-commercial purposes. Any other use of this information is prohibited. HP is not liable for any misuse of this information by any third party. _______________________________________________________________________ [ End Hewlett-Packard Advisory ] ____________________________________________________________________________ ___ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Hewlett-Packard for the information contained in this bulletin. ____________________________________________________________________________ ___ CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CIAC is located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. CIAC is also a founding member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, a global organization established to foster cooperation and coordination among computer security teams worldwide. 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A list of FIRST member organizations and their constituencies can be obtained via WWW at http://www.first.org/. This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. LAST 10 CIAC BULLETINS ISSUED (Previous bulletins available from CIAC) H-19: HP Software Installation Programs Vulnerability H-20: Vulnerability in IRIX csetup H-21: HP Security Vulnerabilities (newgrp, authentication, passwor H-22: talkd Buffer Overrun Vulnerability H-23: Sendmail MIME Conversion Buffer Overrun Vulnerability H-24: IBM AIX(r) "gethostbyname()" Buffer Overrun Vulnerability H-25: Vulnerability in rlogin/term H-26: FreeBSD setlocale() Vulnerability H-27: HP-UX vgdisplay Buffer Overrun Vulnerability H-28: SGI IRIX startmidi/stopmidi Vulnerability RECENT CIAC NOTES ISSUED (Previous Notes available from CIAC) Notes 07 - 3/29/95 A comprehensive review of SATAN Notes 08 - 4/4/95 A Courtney update Notes 09 - 4/24/95 More on the "Good Times" virus urban legend Notes 10 - 6/16/95 PKZ300B Trojan, Logdaemon/FreeBSD, vulnerability in S/Key, EBOLA Virus Hoax, and Caibua Virus Notes 11 - 7/31/95 Virus Update, Hats Off to Administrators, America On-Line Virus Scare, SPI 3.2.2 Released, The Die_Hard Virus Notes 12 - 9/12/95 Securely configuring Public Telnet Services, X Windows, beta release of Merlin, Microsoft Word Macro Viruses, Allegations of Inappropriate Data Collection in Win95 Notes 96-01 - 3/18/96 Java and JavaScript Vulnerabilities, FIRST Conference Announcement, Security and Web Search Engines, Microsoft Word Macro Virus Update -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMwTwf7nzJzdsy3QZAQETBgQA37CkDVL5DA7IUWmuL+DklwezMXhdc52j euo/jpiwxD0JEyfy3tISXj185bwgVPB+CWLxYsQV89/Tr2n57b2yFRCUDOyNSpC1 ZErsA9xbiP4wnAyMBnZzXvc7gfGRy3PZmTsXeVnY+QTohqH7m8ZLDyaKEFkOofB4 W3EoPiSpois= =aCrY -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----