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              AUSCERT External Security Bulletin Redistribution

                             
           ESB-97.020 -- Hewlett Packard Advisory on sendmail patches
                               11 February 1997

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HP have released the following security bulletin describing a vulnerability
which may have been introduced as part of the installation of recent
HP-UX sendmail patches.

If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact AUSCERT or your
representative in FIRST (Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams).

Internet Email: auscert@auscert.org.au
Facsimile:      (07) 3365 4477
Telephone:      (07) 3365 4417 (International: +61 7 3365 4417)
	AUSCERT personnel answer during Queensland business hours
	which are GMT+10:00 (AEST).
	On call after hours for emergencies.


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Document ID:  HPSBUX9701-054
Date Loaded:  970212
      Title:  Recent sendmail patches for HP-UX releases 9.X thru 10.10

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        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
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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.
_______________________________________________________________________
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