Published:
28 June 1998
Protect yourself against future threats.
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AUSCERT External Security Bulletin Redistribution
ESB-98.105 -- CIAC Bulletin I-065
SunOS ufsrestore Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
29 June 1998
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The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability
has released the following advisory concerning a vulnerability in
the SunOS ufsrestore utility. This vulnerability may allow local
users to gain root access.
The following security bulletin is provided as a service to AUSCERT's
members. As AUSCERT did not write this document, AUSCERT has had
no control over its content. As such, the decision to use any or
all of this information is the responsibility of each user or
organisation, and should be done so in accordance with site policies
and procedures.
NOTE: This is only the original release of the security bulletin.
It will not be updated when the original bulletin is. If downloading
at a later date, it is recommended that the bulletin is retrieved
from the original authors to ensure that the information is still
current.
Contact information for CIAC is included in the Security Bulletin
below. If you have any questions or need further information,
please contact them directly.
Previous advisories and external security bulletins can be retrieved from:
http://www.auscert.org.au/Information/advisories.html
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
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.
Facsimile: (07) 3365 7031
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__________________________________________________________
The U.S. Department of Energy
Computer Incident Advisory Capability
___ __ __ _ ___
/ | /_ /
\___ __|__ / \___
__________________________________________________________
INFORMATION BULLETIN
SunOS ufsrestore Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
June 24, 1998 21:00 GMT Number I-065
______________________________________________________________________________
PROBLEM: A buffer overflow vulnerability has been identified in the
ufsrestore utility, used to restore files from backup media
created with the ufsdump command. This is different from the
vulnerability identified in CIAC Bulletin I-049 and Sun
Security Bulletin #00169.
PLATFORM: SunOS 5.5.1, 5.5.1_x86, 5.5 and 5.5_x86.
DAMAGE: If exploited, this vulnerability allows local users to gain
root access.
SOLUTION: Apply workaround until patches are available.
______________________________________________________________________________
VULNERABILITY Intruders are currently exploiting this vulnerability to get
ASSESSMENT: root access after breaking into a user account.
______________________________________________________________________________
SunOS ufsrestore Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
CIAC has learned that there is a new vulnerability in the ufsrestore utility
in SunOS 5.5.1, 5.5.1_x86, 5.5 and 5.5_x86. Note that this is not the same
vulnerability described in CIAC Bulletin I-049 and Sun Security Bulletin
#00169. The new vulnerability is a buffer overflow vulnerability and is
currently being exploited by intruders to get root access after breaking into
a user account.
Sun is working on patches for this utility and estimate that the patches will
be available in two to three weeks. Until then, system managers should use
one of the following workarounds to protect their systems.
1. If you are not using the utilities or don't expect to use them very often,
copy the files onto a floppy disk and delete them from your system. If you
need the utilities, you can copy them back onto your system from the floppy.
The files remove are:
/usr/lib/fs/ufs/ufsrestore
/usr/lib/fs/ufs/ufsdump
The following files are links to the files in /usr/lib/fs/ufs and do not need
to be changed.
/usr/sbin/ufsrestore
/usr/sbin/ufsdump
2. The second option is to change the permissions on the files so that only
the root user can run them. Login as root and execute the following commands
to change the permissions. Be sure the files are owned by root.
chmod 500 /usr/lib/fs/ufs/ufsrestore
chmod 500 /usr/lib/fs/ufs/ufsdump
If at some future date you need to change the permissions back to the original
values, login as root and execute the following two commands.
chmod 4555 /usr/lib/fs/ufs/ufsrestore
chmod 6555 /usr/lib/fs/ufs/ufsdump
_____________________________________________________________________________
CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Sun Microsystems Inc. for the
information contained in this bulletin.
_____________________________________________________________________________
CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer
security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). CIAC is located at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in Livermore, California. CIAC is also a founding
member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, a
global organization established to foster cooperation and coordination
among computer security teams worldwide.
CIAC services are available to DOE, DOE contractors, and the NIH. CIAC
can be contacted at:
Voice: +1 925-422-8193
FAX: +1 925-423-8002
STU-III: +1 925-423-2604
E-mail: ciac@llnl.gov
For emergencies and off-hour assistance, DOE, DOE contractor sites,
and the NIH may contact CIAC 24-hours a day. During off hours (5PM -
8AM PST), call the CIAC voice number 925-422-8193 and leave a message,
or call 800-759-7243 (800-SKY-PAGE) to send a Sky Page. CIAC has two
Sky Page PIN numbers, the primary PIN number, 8550070, is for the CIAC
duty person, and the secondary PIN number, 8550074 is for the CIAC
Project Leader.
Previous CIAC notices, anti-virus software, and other information are
available from the CIAC Computer Security Archive.
World Wide Web: http://www.ciac.org/
(or http://ciac.llnl.gov -- they're the same machine)
Anonymous FTP: ftp.ciac.org
(or ciac.llnl.gov -- they're the same machine)
Modem access: +1 (925) 423-4753 (28.8K baud)
+1 (925) 423-3331 (28.8K baud)
CIAC has several self-subscribing mailing lists for electronic
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1. CIAC-BULLETIN for Advisories, highest priority - time critical
information and Bulletins, important computer security information;
2. SPI-ANNOUNCE for official news about Security Profile Inspector
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availability;
3. SPI-NOTES, for discussion of problems and solutions regarding the
use of SPI products.
Our mailing lists are managed by a public domain software package
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subscribe (add yourself) to one of our mailing lists, send the
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ciac-bulletin, spi-announce OR spi-notes for list-name:
E-mail to ciac-listproc@llnl.gov or majordomo@tholia.llnl.gov:
subscribe list-name
e.g., subscribe ciac-bulletin
You will receive an acknowledgment email immediately with a confirmation
that you will need to mail back to the addresses above, as per the
instructions in the email. This is a partial protection to make sure
you are really the one who asked to be signed up for the list in question.
If you include the word 'help' in the body of an email to the above address,
it will also send back an information file on how to subscribe/unsubscribe,
get past issues of CIAC bulletins via email, etc.
PLEASE NOTE: Many users outside of the DOE, ESnet, and NIH computing
communities receive CIAC bulletins. If you are not part of these
communities, please contact your agency's response team to report
incidents. Your agency's team will coordinate with CIAC. The Forum of
Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is a world-wide
organization. A list of FIRST member organizations and their
constituencies can be obtained via WWW at http://www.first.org/.
This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an
agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States
Government nor the University of California nor any of their
employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any
legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or
usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process
disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately
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otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement,
recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or the
University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed
herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States
Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for
advertising or product endorsement purposes.
LAST 10 CIAC BULLETINS ISSUED (Previous bulletins available from CIAC)
I-055: SGI IRIX Vulnerabilities (NetWare Client, diskperf/diskalign
I-056: Cisco PIX Private Link Key Processing and Cryptography Vulnerabilities
I-057: FreeBSD NFS Kernel Code Error
I-058: SunOS rpc.nisd Vulnerability
I-059: SUN ftpd Vulnerability
I-060: SGI IRIX OSF/DCE Denial of Service Vulnerability
I-061: SGI IRIX mediad(1M) Vulnerability
I-062: SGI IRIX BIND DNS named(1M) Vulnerability
I-063: RSI BSDI rlogind Vulnerability
I-064: SGI IRIX mail(1), rmail(1M), sendmail(1M) Vulnerabilities
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