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______________________________________________________________________________
SUSE Security Announcement
Package: kernel
Announcement-ID: SUSE-SA:2004:028
Date: Wednesday, Sept 1st 2004 14:26 MEST
Affected products: 8.1, 8.2, 9.0, 9.1
SUSE Linux Database Server,
SUSE eMail Server III, 3.1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, 9
SUSE Linux Connectivity Server
SUSE Linux Office Server
Vulnerability Type: remote denial-of-service
Severity (1-10): 6
SUSE default package: yes
Cross References: none
Content of this advisory:
1) security vulnerability resolved:
- integer overflow in kNFSd
- local denial-of-service condition via /dev/ptmx
problem description
2) solution/workaround
3) special instructions and notes
4) package location and checksums
5) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
- zlib
- courier-imap
- gaim
- acroread
- opera
- netpbm/libnetpbm
- webmin
- spamassassin/perl-spamassassin
- cfengine
- xv
6) standard appendix (further information)
______________________________________________________________________________
1) problem description, brief discussion
Various signedness issues and integer overflows have been fixed within
kNFSd and the XDR decode functions of kernel 2.6.
These bugs can be triggered remotely by sending a package with a trusted
source IP address and a write request with a size greater then 2^31.
The result will be a kernel Oops, it is unknown if this bug is otherwise
exploitable yet.
Kernel 2.4 nfsd code is different but may suffer from the same
vulnerability.
Additionally a local denial-of-service condition via /dev/ptmx, which
affects kernel 2.6 only has been fixed. Thanks to Jan Engelhardt for
reporting this issue to us.
This update also fixes several non security bugs, including:
- CD and DVD writing of non-data media was leaking huge amounts kernel
memory.
- Fixed barrier issues on some IDE devices. "barrier=none" should not be
needed anymore.
2) solution/workaround
We recommend to update the kernel or, as a temporary workaround, block
NFS traffic at your firewall or to switch back to the user-space NFS
daemon.
3) special instructions and notes
SPECIAL INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:
============================= The following paragraphs will guide you through the installation
process in a step-by-step fashion. The character sequence "****"
marks the beginning of a new paragraph. In some cases, the steps
outlined in a particular paragraph may or may not be applicable
to your situation.
Therefore, please make sure to read through all of the steps below
before attempting any of these procedures.
All of the commands that need to be executed are required to be
run as the superuser (root). Each step relies on the steps before
it to complete successfully.
Note: The update packages for the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7
(SLES7) are being tested at the moment and will be published as soon
as possible.
**** Step 1: Determine the needed kernel type
Please use the following command to find the kernel type that is
installed on your system:
rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz
Following are the possible kernel types (disregard the version and
build number following the name separated by the "-" character)
k_deflt # default kernel, good for most systems.
k_i386 # kernel for older processors and chipsets
k_athlon # kernel made specifically for AMD Athlon(tm) family processors k_psmp # kernel for Pentium-I dual processor systems
k_smp # kernel for SMP systems (Pentium-II and above)
k_smp4G # kernel for SMP systems which supports a maximum of 4G of RAM
kernel-64k-pagesize
kernel-bigsmp
kernel-default
kernel-smp
**** Step 2: Download the package for your system
Please download the kernel RPM package for your distribution with the
name as indicated by Step 1. The list of all kernel rpm packages is
appended below. Note: The kernel-source package does not
contain a binary kernel in bootable form. Instead, it contains the
sources that the binary kernel rpm packages are created from. It can be
used by administrators who have decided to build their own kernel.
Since the kernel-source.rpm is an installable (compiled) package that
contains sources for the linux kernel, it is not the source RPM for
the kernel RPM binary packages.
The kernel RPM binary packages for the distributions can be found at the
locations below .
8.0/images/
8.1/rpm/i586
8.2/rpm/i586
9.0/rpm/i586
9.1/rpm/i586
After downloading the kernel RPM package for your system, you should
verify the authenticity of the kernel rpm package using the methods as
listed in section 3) of each SUSE Security Announcement.
**** Step 3: Installing your kernel rpm package
Install the rpm package that you have downloaded in Steps 3 or 4 with
the command
rpm -Uhv --nodeps --force
where is the name of the rpm package that you downloaded.
Warning: After performing this step, your system will likely not be
able to boot if the following steps have not been fully
followed.
If you run SUSE LINUX 8.1 and haven't applied the kernel update
(SUSE-SA:2003:034), AND you are using the freeswan package, you also
need to update the freeswan rpm as a dependency as offered
by YOU (YaST Online Update). The package can be downloaded from
8.1/rpm/i586/
**** Step 4: configuring and creating the initrd
The initrd is a ramdisk that is loaded into the memory of your
system together with the kernel boot image by the bootloader. The
kernel uses the content of this ramdisk to execute commands that must
be run before the kernel can mount its actual root filesystem. It is
usually used to initialize SCSI drivers or NIC drivers for diskless
operation.
The variable INITRD_MODULES in /etc/sysconfig/kernel determines
which kernel modules will be loaded in the initrd before the kernel
has mounted its actual root filesystem. The variable should contain
your SCSI adapter (if any) or filesystem driver modules.
With the installation of the new kernel, the initrd has to be
re-packed with the update kernel modules. Please run the command
mk_initrd
as root to create a new init ramdisk (initrd) for your system.
On SuSE Linux 8.1 and later, this is done automatically when the
RPM is installed.
**** Step 5: bootloader
If you run a SUSE LINUX 8.x, SLES8, or SUSE LINUX 9.x system, there
are two options:
Depending on your software configuration, you have either the lilo
bootloader or the grub bootloader installed and initialized on your
system.
The grub bootloader does not require any further actions to be
performed after the new kernel images have been moved in place by the
rpm Update command.
If you have a lilo bootloader installed and initialized, then the lilo
program must be run as root. Use the command
grep LOADER_TYPE /etc/sysconfig/bootloader
to find out which boot loader is configured. If it is lilo, then you
must run the lilo command as root. If grub is listed, then your system
does not require any bootloader initialization.
Warning: An improperly installed bootloader may render your system
unbootable.
**** Step 6: reboot
If all of the steps above have been successfully completed on your
system, then the new kernel including the kernel modules and the
initrd should be ready to boot. The system needs to be rebooted for
the changes to become active. Please make sure that all steps have
completed, then reboot using the command
shutdown -r now
or
init 6
Your system should now shut down and reboot with the new kernel.
4) package location and checksums
Note: 2.4 kernels will be delivered later.
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:
73de7e60ca1abfdeabf1050081219c2e
9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.5-7.108.i586.rpm
825c301e6919fc68c3065070e24789ab
9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.108.i586.rpm
203464e930c30a46e701bb965d6c8038
9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-source-2.6.5-7.108.i586.rpm
cd0d39502a1d0ee2ae2c65ade41cbcdf
9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-syms-2.6.5-7.108.i586.rpm
4e74afadaa51847cc43e5efe5ceee2af
source rpm(s):
9.1/rpm/src/kernel-default-2.6.5-7.108.nosrc.rpm
144ffe39b42b4d1d15553e03eb72e254
9.1/rpm/src/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.5-7.108.nosrc.rpm
9f91e334715b3c76dd994972046d136c
9.1/rpm/src/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.108.nosrc.rpm
c9be908bd5ee616d35599cb6159c692c
9.1/rpm/src/kernel-source-2.6.5-7.108.src.rpm
09be5fe9377e17c1d09e15d9174f00ab
9.1/rpm/src/kernel-syms-2.6.5-7.108.src.rpm
11acac0fae194cda05afc4f325afc43f
x86-64 Platform:
SUSE Linux 9.1:
dffd2d5f3379fc2f1b9e6b7da9ae2509
c6e348640d1259870fef0764d8b3f38e
0639c9ebb96cba87fe9d0d0e3f549111
76f0b22b72ca537ed76e4f3ef84fb0aa
source rpm(s):
2fa3a5dc925dfb3784d119f77b016f7b
a7467d6bd84d34f2d853b788b6f34f5a
2501201090488ee6833133933bf2bc9d
e349531d2d8d115eca6bc6b89b7a0c21
______________________________________________________________________________
5) Pending vulnerabilities in SUSE Distributions and Workarounds:
- zlib
A Denial of Service condition has been found in the inflate
function of zlib 1.2.
This version of zlib is only shipped with SUSE Linux 9.1 and
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and is not integrated in other
packages which commonly use zlib (OpenSSH, Kernel etc).
New packages will soon be available on our FTP servers.
- courier-imap
A format string bug has been found in the courier IMAP server,
which can only happen when debugging is enabled. Since this is
not the default configuration on SUSE Linux products, the impact
of this bug is very minor. The courier-imap packages will be fixed
with the next version of SUSE Linux.
- gaim
Various buffer overflow conditions have been found in the gaim
instant messenger. The MSN protocol parsing has already been fixed
with the packages announced in the SUSE Security Announcement
SUSE-SA:2004:025. The packages which fix the other pending
bugs in gaim will be available on our FTP servers soon.
- acroread
A buffer overflow and a shell metacharacter problem within the
acrobat reader has been fixed. This allowed attackers to execute
arbitrary commands by providing malformed documents to an user.
New packages are already available on our FTP servers.
- opera
The web-browser opera is affected by several security bugs.
New packages will soon be available on our FTP servers.
- netpbm/libnetpbm
Some tools of the netpbm suite create files in an insecure manner
that can lead to local privilege escalation.
New packages are available on our FTP servers.
- webmin
Several bugs in webmin were fixed. These bugs allowed unauthorized
reading of the configuration of any module, locking valid accounts
by sending bogus passwords, and insecure handling of temporary files.
New packages are available on our FTP servers.
- spamassassin/perl-spamassassin
This update fix' a remote denial-of-service condition in SpamAssassin.
New packages are available on our FTP servers.
- cfengine
This update resolves a heap corruption bug in the RSA authentication code
of cfservd which can be exploited remotely to execute arbitrary code as
root. Another bug leads to a remotely triggerable crash of the cfservd to
deny service. For a successful attack the attacker has to bypass the IP
Access Control Lists (ACLs).
New packages are available on our FTP servers.
- xv
The xv image viewer code contains several buffer and heap overflows
which may allow attackers to use malformed image files to execute code
on the victim system remotely.
New packages are available on our FTP servers.
______________________________________________________________________________
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 .
- 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.
====================================================================
