______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                syslog-ng
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2002:039
        Date:                   Thu Oct 31 11:00:00 MET 2002
        Affected products:      7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 8.1
                                SuSE eMail Server III, 3.1
                                SuSE Linux Firewall on CD/Admin host
        Vulnerability Type:     remote command execution
        Severity (1-10):        5
        SuSE default package:   no
        Cross References:        https://www.oneidentity.com,
                                CAN-2002-0972

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: Buffer overflow in syslog-ng.
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
            - tomcat
            - apache scoreboard
            - groff
        3) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

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

    The syslog-ng package is a portable syslog implementation which can
    be used as syslogd replacement.
    Syslog-ng contained buffer overflows in its macro expansion routines.
    These overflows could be triggered by remote attackers if certain
    configuration options were enabled.
      Syslog-ng is not used by default on SuSE Linux, and even if installed,
    the problematic options are not enabled by default. We recommend an update
    of the syslog-ng package nevertheless if you use syslog-ng for logging.
      To be sure the update takes effect you have to restart the daemon
    by issuing the following command as root:

       /etc/init.d/syslog-ng restart

    We would like to thank Balazs Scheidler for offering fixes for this
    problem.

    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.

    i386 Intel Platform:

    SuSE-8.1
      
      3e18ad784051e4bbfdcb543d39dab688
    source rpm:
      
      aa51cb8a4208eda4b25c6a1269d74295

    SuSE-8.0
      
      183db354ceea66a48982b795436a0b57
    source rpm:
      
      c24798a52b9893b24e4cae4b890dcf0e

    SuSE-7.3
      
      9c10c9d8f3607a4f9d13ec0e31afb0b0
    source rpm:
      
      03927a5ccff05e0171dcb0544969a162

    SuSE-7.2
      
      a2540127cd93a8c99304e9dbb79b9906
    source rpm:
      
      09d479f8a75d6fed30da3939ad1d7f39

    SuSE-7.1
      
      8079c939882b955703a9001aa68e2f11
    source rpm:
      
      a97ddbad6908356758259a19449dbed4


    Sparc Platform:

    SuSE-7.3
      
      5dbb12897f09b73a150c3c7930431a55
    source rpm:
      
      db05461d6a2b06cb527b18169c252a4a


    AXP Alpha Platform:

    SuSE-7.1
      
      961b56ba9ed92a79f8c986c92c64a5d7
    source rpm:
      
      914b26fba99632bf4b5e86dd852927ac


    PPC Power PC Platform:

    SuSE-7.3
      
      8bbb6ab7c32def35ef39e926b089c2bc
    source rpm:
      
      85527a7be7d81d739a55be1241cc1b3b

    SuSE-7.1
      
      3e923a2fc855031eba588d5db83a12f0
    source rpm:
      
      8cdd6e6279b2586b639cfbd0d424a052

______________________________________________________________________________

2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    - tomcat/jakarta
    Remote attackers can obtain the sourcecode of JSP files on unpatched
    servers. This has been fixed in the new tomcat packages. The README.SuSE
    file of the tomcat package contains further information regarding secure
    configuration of the tomcat server. To ensure a certain level of security
    we recommend to disable the invoker servlet.

    - apache (CAN-2002-0839)
    Prior to Apache 1.3.27, the shared memory segment containing the
    "score board" was writable by user "wwwrun". This meant that users    able to install CGI scripts etc in a location where they will be
    executed by apache were able to modify the contents of this
    scoreboard. This can be exploited to cause apache to send the
    SIGUSR1 signal to arbitrary processes or arbitrarily spawn new apache
    children. This update package contains a patch fixing this problem.

    - groff
    Someone hyped a format string bug in pic (which is part of the groff
    package) already known since August 2001. Fixes have been pusblished
    at about the same time. The groff packages in SuSE products have the
    fix for this problem since SLES7 (SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, Version
    7), appeared in August 2001, and all newer products.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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>