______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                sendmail
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2003:035
        Date:                   Tuesday, Aug 26th 2003 19:00 MEST
        Affected products:      8.0, 8.1, 8.2
                                SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8
                                remote denial-of-service
        Severity (1-10):        5
        SuSE default package:   no
        Cross References:       CAN-2003-0688

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: calling free() with arbitrary
                                            argument
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
               - traceroute(-nanog)
               - gdm2
               - pam_smb
               - exim
        3) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

1)  problem description, brief discussion, solution, upgrade information

    The well known and widely used MTA sendmail is vulnerable to a
    remote denial-of-service attack in version 8.12.8 and earlier (but not
    before 8.12). The bug exists in the DNS map code. This feature is
    enabled by specifying FEATURE(`enhdnsbl').
    When sendmail receives an invalid DNS response it tries to call free(3)
    on random data which results in a process crash.

    After your system was updated you have to restart your sendmail daemon
    to make the update effective.

    There is no known workaround for this vulnerability other than using a
    different MTA.

    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.


    Intel i386 Platform:

    SuSE-8.2:
      
      eaf90e49886f496b2779107f1d9a831a
    patch rpm(s):
      
      c5999fe4026e05c4308249a7e3dbf8f4
    source rpm(s):
      
      2cda6c535a3be4e26c50373bd078b4c7

    SuSE-8.1:
      
      03d2b6e1083f863dc19a28f44256b071
    patch rpm(s):
      
      ee6a3553396432bd3a208d355dacdd33
    source rpm(s):
      
      97417cee623251c6cc3009c13c5b1fbe

    SuSE-8.0:
      
      c7cd791bdbcf0c5ed80cd9aab0ccc965
    patch rpm(s):
      
      a2d04f73894a09b9134f0f516c385d78
    source rpm(s):
      
      4c059b5714ba2dbe5860654622b65bfb


    Intel i386 Platform:

    SuSE-8.2:
      
      1d5e50aea21f2ce88277fd9113dfb6da
    patch rpm(s):
      
      402cff9f2e0e4b56b2409082d0adbc0d
    source rpm(s):
      
      2cda6c535a3be4e26c50373bd078b4c7

    SuSE-8.1:
      
      7de06e8f16800359e25b5d9dcc739af5
    patch rpm(s):
      
      67c84d8cd4ff132ef0c1a91ed845b5d8
    source rpm(s):
      
      97417cee623251c6cc3009c13c5b1fbe

    SuSE-8.0:
      
      b95b64d0c474ee7b37a82e2fc04e72b7
    patch rpm(s):
      
      e872341553634848bb19b0d89a1e3a37
    source rpm(s):
      
      4c059b5714ba2dbe5860654622b65bfb

______________________________________________________________________________

2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - traceroute(-nanog)
      A integer overflow in traceroute can be abused by local attackers      to gain access to a raw IP socket.
      New packages are available on out FTP servers.

    - gdm2
      Due to a bug in GDM it is possible for local users to read any text
      file on a system by creating a symlink from ~/.xsession-errors.
      Updated packages will be available on our FTP servers soon.

    - pam_smb
      A buffer overflow in the password handling function of pam_smb
      allows remote root compromise.
      Fixed packages will be available soon.

    - exim
      Two bugs where fixed in exim. One bug allows remote access as user
      mail/mail and the other one allows local root access for 'Admin Users'.
      Fixed packages are available on our FTP servers.

______________________________________________________________________________

3)  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-subscribe@suse.com>.

    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
                <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> or <security@suse.de>.
    The <security@suse.de> public key is listed below.
    ====================================================================______________________________________________________________________________

    The information in this advisory may be distributed or reproduced,
    provided that the advisory is not modified in any way. In particular,
    it is desired that the clear-text signature shows proof of the
    authenticity of the text.
    SuSE Linux AG makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect
    to the information contained in this security advisory.

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  2048R/3D25D3D9 1999-03-06 SuSE Security Team <security@suse.de>
pub  1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SuSE Package Signing Key <build@suse.de>