From agent99@boytoy.csd.sgi.com Fri Aug 28 00:06:15 1998 From: SGI Security Coordinator To: agent99@sgi.com Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 16:22:44 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Seyon Security Vulnerability DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS - NONE - FOR PUBLIC RELEASE -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ______________________________________________________________________________ Silicon Graphics Inc. Security Advisory Title: Seyon Security Vulnerability Number: 19980803-01-I Date: August 27, 1998 ______________________________________________________________________________ Silicon Graphics provides this information freely to the SGI user community for its consideration, interpretation, implementation and use. Silicon Graphics recommends that this information be acted upon as soon as possible. Silicon Graphics provides the information in this Security Advisory on an "AS-IS" basis only, and disclaims all warranties with respect thereto, express, implied or otherwise, including, without limitation, any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Silicon Graphics be liable for any loss of profits, loss of business, loss of data or for any indirect, special, exemplary, incidental or consequential damages of any kind arising from your use of, failure to use or improper use of any of the instructions or information in this Security Advisory. ______________________________________________________________________________ - ----------------------- - --- Issue Specifics --- - ----------------------- seyon is a serial port communications package for X windows. A vulnerability has been discovered in the seyon program which can lead to a root compromise. Any user who can execute the seyon program can exploit this vulnerability. This vulnerability is being actively exploited. Silicon Graphics, Inc. has investigated the issue and recommends that IRIX system administrators take appropriate steps according to their local site security policies and requirements. - -------------- - --- Impact --- - -------------- Silicon Graphics distributes the Seyon package as an IRIX inst image called "fw_MSSeyon" on the SGI Freeware 1.0 and 2.0 CDROMs. The "fw_MSSeyon" IRIX inst images are also available on the web at the following SGI Freeware sites: http://freeware.sgi.com/ http://toolbox.sgi.com/TasteOfDT/public/ IRIX customers who have installed "fw_MSSeyon" IRIX inst images from any source prior to and including v2.14c are vulnerable. A local account is required on the vulnerable system in order to exploit this issue locally and remotely. seyon is set-uid program and when exploited, can lead to a root compromise. This vulnerability has been publicly discussed in Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists. This vulnerability is being actively exploited on IRIX systems. - -------------------------- - --- Temporary Solution --- - -------------------------- There are two temporary solutions available for this security issue. I) Remove the vulnerable seyon package. II) Remove the set-uid bit of the seyon program. SGI recommends that IRIX system administrators take appropriate steps according to their local site security policies and requirements. I) To remove the vulnerable Seyon package use the following steps. 1) Check to see if the vulnerable subsystem is installed. Version 2.14c of fw_MSSeyon is vulnerable. % versions -b fw_MSSeyon Name Date Description I fw_MSSeyon 08/26/97 Seyon X Telecommunications Package version 2.14c by Muhammad M. Saggaf 2) Become the root user on the system. % /bin/su - Password: # 3) Remove the vulnerable subsystem. # versions remove fw_MSSeyon 4) Return to previous level. # exit % II) To remove the set-uid bit of the seyon program use the following steps. 1) Check to see if the vulnerable subsystem is installed. Version 2.14c of fw_MSSeyon is vulnerable. % versions -b fw_MSSeyon Name Date Description I fw_MSSeyon 08/26/97 Seyon X Telecommunications Package version 2.14c by Muhammad M. Saggaf 2) Become the root user on the system. % /bin/su - Password: # 3) Remove the set-uid bit. # /usr/bin/chmod u-s /usr/freeware/bin/seyon 4) Verify the new permissions on the program. Note that the program size may be different depending on release. # ls -al /usr/freeware/bin/seyon -rwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 181600 Aug 26 1997 /usr/freeware/bin/seyon 5) Return to previous level. # exit % - ---------------- - --- Solution --- - ---------------- Silicon Graphics does not distribute patches for SGI Freeware software. At this time, an update or patch is not available from the author of Seyon nor at the main distribution site: ftp://sipb.mit.edu/pub/seyon/notice.sipb If the author of Seyon provides an update or patch, future release of SGI Freeware will attempt to include the update or patch. Future releases of SGI Freeware software will be hosted at: http://freeware.sgi.com/ - ------------------------ - --- Acknowledgments --- - ------------------------ Silicon Graphics wishes to thank the NCSA and other FIRST Organization (http://www.first.org/) members for their assistance in this matter. - ----------------------------------------------------------- - --- Silicon Graphics Inc. Security Information/Contacts --- - ----------------------------------------------------------- If there are questions about this document, email can be sent to cse-security-alert@sgi.com. ------oOo------ Silicon Graphics provides security information and patches for use by the entire SGI community. This information is freely available to any person needing the information and is available via anonymous FTP and the Web. The primary SGI anonymous FTP site for security information and patches is sgigate.sgi.com (204.94.209.1). Security information and patches are located under the directories ~ftp/security and ~ftp/patches, respectively. The Silicon Graphics Security Headquarters Web page is accessible at the URL http://www.sgi.com/Support/security/security.html. For issues with the patches on the FTP sites, email can be sent to cse-security-alert@sgi.com. For assistance obtaining or working with security patches, please contact your SGI support provider. ------oOo------ Silicon Graphics provides a free security mailing list service called wiretap and encourages interested parties to self-subscribe to receive (via email) all SGI Security Advisories when they are released. Subscribing to the mailing list can be done via the Web (http://www.sgi.com/Support/security/wiretap.html) or by sending email to SGI as outlined below. % mail wiretap-request@sgi.com subscribe wiretap end ^d In the example above, is the email address that you wish the mailing list information sent to. The word end must be on a separate line to indicate the end of the body of the message. The control-d (^d) is used to indicate to the mail program that you are finished composing the mail message. ------oOo------ Silicon Graphics provides a comprehensive customer World Wide Web site. This site is located at http://www.sgi.com/Support/security/security.html. ------oOo------ For reporting *NEW* SGI security issues, email can be sent to security-alert@sgi.com or contact your SGI support provider. A support contract is not required for submitting a security report. ______________________________________________________________________________ This information is provided freely to all interested parties and may be redistributed provided that it is not altered in any way, Silicon Graphics is appropriately credited and the document retains and includes its valid PGP signature. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNeXo3LQ4cFApAP75AQEzxgP/d64K1bri4G60MXcB1PTxxC1GKDa4r669 msFUodnOjQzA3ryEgNeI79DWBxKcLMj2zc33SdI9s5IcTrFTZ8AyjzWLy7Mz2us8 ui7M1eYUU0hf4jgohxcakZbS6KSTwHlCja3SjUNLJNUY2dWEokQA0nKOdl6zOWzs s19VrQAo7iQ= =uH7x -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----