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______________________________________________________________________________

                        SUSE Security Announcement

        Package:                gaim
        Announcement-ID:        SUSE-SA:2004:025
        Date:                   Thursday, Aug 12th 2004 12:00 MEST
        Affected products:      9.1
        Vulnerability Type:     remote code execution
        Severity (1-10):        6
        SUSE default package:   No
        Cross References:       CAN-2004-0500

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved:
             - buffer overflow in gaim
           problem description
        2) solution/workaround
        3) special instructions and notes
        4) package location and checksums
        5) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
            - KDE
            - mozilla/firefox
            - ethereal
            - arts
        6) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

1) problem description, brief discussion

   Gaim is an instant messaging client which supports a wide range of
   protocols.

   Sebastian Krahmer of the SuSE Security Team discovered various remotely
   exploitable buffer overflows in the MSN-protocol parsing functions during
   a code review of the MSN protocol handling code.

   Remote attackers can execute arbitrary code as the user running the gaim
   client.

   The vulnerable code exists in SUSE Linux 9.1 only.


2) solution/workaround

    There is no known workaround.


3) special instructions and notes

    Before applying the update, all instances of the gaim client should be
    closed.


4) package location and checksums

    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.


    x86 Platform:

    SUSE Linux 9.1:
          860321d82ba69b52420f20a79d85e1cf
    patch rpm(s):
          4f1fc5407a2edf9483103cf1e4c9667b
    source rpm(s):
          3944443b7a6739d24737eca93cc48e98



    x86-64 Platform:

    SUSE Linux 9.1:
          d6cf6e00d46bf3098f4b3a384e14b27f
    patch rpm(s):
          35aa894e1a3f51fa4e210d0d01bfdd17
    source rpm(s):
          02e49732c72aec9d928a01491bca68fd


______________________________________________________________________________

5)  Pending vulnerabilities in SUSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - KDE
    The KDE libs package contained two occureneces of insecure handling
    of temporary files in the mcoputils code (Thanks to Andrew Tuitt for
    reporting this to us) and in the dcopserver code.
    These two bugs can be exploited locally to remove and/or overwrite files
    with the privileges of the user running a vulnerable KDE application.
    A bug in the kdebase3 package allows the content of unrelated browser
    windows to be modified.
    This issue may be used to trick users into entering sensitive
    informations on a malicious web-site.
    New packages will be available soon.

    - mozilla/firefox
    We are currently testing new mozilla/firefox packages that include
    several fixes for security-related bugs.
    New packages will be available soon.

    - ethereal
    It may be possible to make Ethereal crash or run arbitrary code by
    injecting a malformed packet or by convincing someone to read a
    malformed packet trace file. (CAN-2004-0633, CAN-2004-0634, CAN-2004-0635)
    New packages are available at our FTP servers.

    - arts
    This update removes an inconsistency in the comparsion of credentials
    while creating temporary files. This flaw can be exploited locally in
    conjunction with setuid Arts applications. (very unlikely)

______________________________________________________________________________

6)  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 
       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 security@suse.de),
       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 
       to verify the signature of the package, where  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 "build@suse.de" 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:

    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-announce@suse.com
        -   SUSE's announce-only mailing list.
            Only SUSE's security announcements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an email to
                .

    For general information or the frequently asked questions (faq)
    send mail to:
         or
         respectively.

    ====================================================================    SUSE's security contact is  or .
    The  public key is listed below.
    ====================================================================