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AUSCERT External Security Bulletin Redistribution
ESB-2001.025 -- FreeBSD-SA-01:02
syslog-ng remote denial-of-service
17 January 2001
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AusCERT Security Bulletin Summary
---------------------------------
Product: syslog-ng
Vendor: FreeBSD Ports Collection
Operating System: FreeBSD
BSD
Impact: Denial of Service
Access Required: Remote
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FreeBSD-SA-01:02 Security Advisory
FreeBSD, Inc.
Topic: syslog-ng remote denial-of-service
Category: ports
Module: syslog-ng
Announced: 2001-01-15
Credits: Balazs Scheidler <bazsi@BALABIT.HU>
Affects: Ports collection prior to the correction date.
Corrected: 2000-11-25
Vendor status: Updated version released
FreeBSD only: NO
I. Background
syslog-ng is a replacement for the standard syslogd daemon, a service
for logging of local and remote system messages.
II. Problem Description
The syslog-ng port, versions prior to 1.4.9, contains a remote
vulnerability. Due to incorrect log parsing, remote users may cause
syslog-ng to crash, causing a denial-of-service if the daemon is not
running under a watchdog process which will automatically restart it
in the event of failure.
The syslog-ng port is not installed by default, nor is it "part of
FreeBSD" as such: it is part of the FreeBSD ports collection, which
contains nearly 4500 third-party applications in a ready-to-install
format. The ports collections shipped with FreeBSD 3.5.1 and 4.2
contain this problem since it was discovered after the releases.
FreeBSD makes no claim about the security of these third-party
applications, although an effort is underway to provide a security
audit of the most security-critical ports.
III. Impact
Malicious remote attackers may cause syslog-ng to crash, causing a
denial-of-service if the daemon is not running under a watchdog
process which will automatically restart it in the event of
failure. The default installation of the port/package is therefore
vulnerable to this problem.
If you have not chosen to install the syslog-ng port/package, then
your system is not vulnerable to this problem.
IV. Workaround
Deinstall the syslog-ng port/package, if you have installed it.
V. Solution
One of the following:
1) Upgrade your entire ports collection and rebuild the syslog-ng port.
2) Deinstall the old package and install a new package dated after the
correction date, obtained from:
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/sysutils/syslog-ng-1.4.10.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/sysutils/syslog-ng-1.4.10.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/sysutils/syslog-ng-1.4.10.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/sysutils/syslog-ng-1.4.10.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/sysutils/syslog-ng-1.4.10.tgz
3) download a new port skeleton for the syslog-ng port from:
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/
and use it to rebuild the port.
4) Use the portcheckout utility to automate option (3) above. The
portcheckout port is available in /usr/ports/devel/portcheckout or the
package can be obtained from:
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
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