Published:
13 May 2001
Protect yourself against future threats.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- =========================================================================== AUSCERT External Security Bulletin Redistribution ESB-2001.195 -- HP Support Information Digests HPSBUX0105-150 Security Patch Check Tool announcement 14 May 2001 =========================================================================== AusCERT Security Bulletin Summary --------------------------------- Product: Security Patch Check Vendor: Hewlett-Packard Operating System: HP-UX 11.00 HP-UX 11.04 HP-UX 11.11 - --------------------------BEGIN INCLUDED TEXT-------------------- Document ID: HPSBUX0105-150 Date Loaded: 20010509 Title: Security Patch Check Tool announcement - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY SECURITY ADVISORY: #0150, 09 May 2001 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The information in the following Security Advisory should be acted upon as soon as possible. Hewlett-Packard Company 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. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hewlett-Packard is pleased to announce the release of "Security Patch Check," a tool which will help HP-UX administrators ensure their systems' security patches are up-to-date. NEW TOOL: "Security Patch Check". Please review swacl security considerations below (in Section III) whether or not you choose to use Security Patch Check tool. PLATFORM: Security Patch Check is supported on all hardware platforms running HP-UX releases 11.00, 11.04, and 11.11. AVAILABILITY: This product is available for free download at: http://www.software.hp.com/cgi-bin/swdepot_parser.cgi/cgi/displayProductInfo.pl?productNumber=B6834AA This product is also integrated with Service Control Manager for use on multiple systems. DEPENDENCIES: Perl version 5.005 or higher LWP libraries including URI, HTML::Parser, MIME::Base64, Digest::MD5, and Net::FTP A version of Perl with these extensions is available from http://www.devresource.hp.com/OpenSource/Tools/perl/perl.html - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I. Background Security Patch Check is a tool which can be used to download the latest data about security patches and compare it to the software installed on a system. The tool reports which security patches are missing from a system based on the security patch matrix which is derived from Security bulletins released by HP. It reports the "best" patch to install if at least one patch exists to address the reported vulnerability but none (it or a patch superseding it) is installed. Also, any recalled patches which are present on the system will be reported. It works through a firewall, with the help of a web-proxy or similar network device. II. Common Questions A. What are the security implications of Security Patch Check itself? Security Patch Check summarizes a specific class of possible weaknesses in a system (unpatched vulnerabilities reported in HP security bulletins). However, it does not explicitly add a vulnerability to the system. The analysis it performs can be done by anyone with permission to run swlist on the system in question. You may, however, want to restrict access to swlist (such as remote access). To view the permissions for the SD database (and thus swlist), run # swacl -l host OR # swacl -l root Look for any entry beginning with "any_other". To prevent "any_other" from accessing the SD database, run, for example: # swacl -l root -D any_other This will take away read privileges on the database to "others" (those not listed in the swacl output). Default swacl permissions prohibit remote modification but allow remote read, which is often used within an administrative domain. Restricting remote read will prevent remote users from identifying which security patches are missing from your system (note that this is independent of whether you use Security Patch Check yourself or not, or even whether they do, since the analysis can also be done manually, though that is more difficult). It is possible to restore the ability to perform swlist commands to specific individual users or groups. For example, to give user "dave" on remote host "admin1" the ability to run "swlist" against the local system, execute the command: # swacl -l root -M user:dave@admin1:r Similarly, to grant such capability to all members of group "admin", run: # swacl -l root -M group:admin:r Refer to swacl(1M) for more details. Most firewall configurations will restrict swlist access across multiple trust domains, so this is only an issue within a given trust domain (by default, swagentd listens on port 2121 - see swagentd(1M)). Refer to security_patch_check(1M) for other security issues. B. After running security patch check on my system, what else do I need to do? Installing the patches that security_patch_check recommends addresses ONLY those vulnerabilities that are closed by patches. The security bulletins and advisories from HP sometimes contain other actions (manual steps) to close vulnerabilities. Thus, each advisory from the archive of previously-released security advisories, which applies to the platform being analyzed, must be examined to determine if any manual steps are required. This archive can be obtained from: http://itrc.hp.com/cki/bin/doc.pl/screen=ckiSecurityBulletin C. Are there any known issues with Security Patch Check? No. However, a previous version of Perl available from devresource.hp.com was found to conflict with HP-UX core patches (PHCO) 22923 and 23770. If you have this version of Perl installed with these patches, installation of Security Patch Check will warn that it cannot find some required modules and invocation of Security Patch Check will fail with a similar message. The version of Perl currently available on the www.devresource.hp.com URL listed above does not have this problem. You will need version 5.005_03.2001-05-01 or later. Your version of Perl can be found by running "swlist Perl". You may need to update perl if you have an older version and have one of these patches or their successors installed. III. Recommended actions Set swacl permissions in accordance with your site's security policy, taking into consideration any use of firewalls which block swlist/swagentd (port 2121), and who should be able to run swlist/swagentd and thus Security Patch Check remotely (see the swacl man page for details). Download and install Perl. Version 5.005 or higher with all of the LWP libraries is required. An HP-UX depot containing all of the required dependencies is available at: http://www.devresource.hp.com/OpenSource/Tools/perl/perl.html Download and install Security Patch Check. This is available for free at: http://www.software.hp.com/cgi-bin/swdepot_parser.cgi/cgi/displayProductInfo.pl?productNumber=B6834AA Set the environment variable ftp_proxy if you are behind a proxying firewall and wish to use the automatic download feature of Security Patch Check (see man page for details). It is recommended that you run Security Patch Check on a regular basis (e.g., nightly) to ensure that your systems are up-to-date with respect to security patches. Security Patch Check will report recalled patches and security patches which correspond to installed software but have not been applied. After reading the corresponding recall notices and security bulletins, apply patches in accordance with your site's security and patch policies. Security Patch Check is only able to analyze patches. Some HP Security Bulletins contain manual actions which cannot be analyzed in an automated fashion. An archive of all previously released HP security bulletins is available at: http://itrc.hp.com/cki/bin/doc.pl/screen=ckiSecurityBulletin IV. To subscribe to automatically receive future NEW HP Security Bulletins from the HP IT Resource Center via electronic mail, do the following: Use your browser to get to the HP IT Resource Center page at: http://itrc.hp.com Under the Maintenance and Support Menu (Electronic Support Center), click on the "more..." link. Then - Use the 'Login' tab at the left side of the screen to login using your ID and password. Check with your system administrator to see if you have an existing login or use the "Register" button at the left to create a login. You will need to login in order to gain access to many areas of the ITRC. Remember to save the User ID assigned to you, and your password. Under the "Notifications" section (near the bottom of the page), select "Support Information Digests". To -subscribe- to future HP Security Bulletins or other Technical Digests, click the check box (in the left column) for the appropriate digest and then click the "Update Subscriptions" button at the bottom of the page. or To -review- bulletins already released, select the link (in the middle column) for the appropriate digest. To -gain access- to the Security Patch Matrix, select the link for "The Security Bulletins Archive". (near the bottom of the page) Once in the archive the third link is to the current Security Patch Matrix. Updated daily, this matrix categorizes security patches by platform/OS release, and by bulletin topic. Security Patch Check completely automates the process of reviewing the patch matrix for 11.XX systems. For information on the Security Patch Check tool, see: http://www.software.hp.com/cgi-bin/swdepot_parser.cgi/cgi/ displayProductInfo.pl?productNumber=B6834AA" The security patch matrix is also available via anonymous ftp: ftp.itrc.hp.com:~ftp/export/patches/hp-ux_patch_matrix On the "Support Information Digest Main" page: click on the "HP Security Bulletin Archive". V. 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 Advisory to Hewlett-Packard (HP) customers (or the Internet community) for the purpose of alerting them to problems, if and only if, the Advisory 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. ________________________________________________________________________ - -----End of Document ID: HPSBUX0105-150-------------------------------------- - --------------------------END INCLUDED TEXT-------------------- You have received this e-mail bulletin as a result of your organisation's registration with AusCERT. The mailing list you are subscribed to is maintained within your organisation, so if you do not wish to continue receiving these bulletins you should contact your local IT manager. If you do not know who that is, please send an email to auscert@auscert.org.au and we will forward your request to the appropriate person. This security bulletin is provided as a service to AusCERT's members. As AusCERT did not write the document quoted above, AusCERT has had no control over its content. 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 may not be updated when updates to the original are made. If downloading at a later date, it is recommended that the bulletin is retrieved directly from the original authors to ensure that the information is still current. Contact information for the authors of the original document is included in the Security Bulletin above. 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 Facsimile: (07) 3365 7031 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. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv Comment: ftp://ftp.auscert.org.au/pub/auscert/AUSCERT_PGP.key iQCVAwUBOv/m8Ch9+71yA2DNAQGKJgQAmsMCgvB/Wo5izxgIfZA4kfW7ATVucg6n qAHL92hvkHXss+YLLsd3PIcOuXOnLVOGwxIjRkX3CrMz67DPurFy4C7BBw8LmswG 2A53JiT5Ma+ipmYd4WMpNt12mkf4rvIKReK6KKZUrCgJRAk4mzuKH/abPZH9H63A RHSunApgfpM= =Estg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----