============================================================================= CERT(sm) Vendor-Initiated Bulletin VB-96.02 February 1, 1996 Topic: Incorrect Permissions on Packing Subsystem Source: Silicon Graphics, Inc. To aid in the wide distribution of essential security information, the CERT Coordination Center is forwarding the following information from Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), who urges you to act on this information as soon as possible. SGI contact information is included in the forwarded text below; please contact them if you have any questions or need further information. ========================FORWARDED TEXT STARTS HERE============================ ______________________________________________________________________________ Silicon Graphics Inc. Security Advisory Title: Incorrect Permissions on Packing Subsystem Number: 19960102-01-P Date: January 29, 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ Silicon Graphics provides this information freely to the SGI community for its consideration, interpretation and implementation. Silicon Graphics recommends that this information be acted upon as soon as possible. Silicon Graphics will not be liable for any consequential damages arising from the use of, or failure to use or use properly, any of the instructions or information in this Security Advisory. ______________________________________________________________________________ Silicon Graphics has discovered a security vulnerability within the "ATT Packaging Utility" (eoe2.sw.oampkg) subsystem available for the IRIX operating system. SGI has investigated this issue and recommends the following steps for neutralizing the exposure. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that these measures be implemented on ALL SGI systems running IRIX 5.2, 5.3, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.1. This issue has been corrected for future releases of IRIX. - -------------- - --- Impact --- - -------------- The "ATT Packaging Utility" (eoe2.sw.oampkg) subsystem is not installed as part of the standard IRIX operating system. It is optionally installed when manually selected to be installed when using the IRIX inst program. Therefore, not all SGI systems will have this subsystem installed. For those systems that the subsystem installed, both local and remote users may be able to overwrite files and/or become root on a targeted SGI system. - ---------------- - --- Solution --- - ---------------- To determine if the packaging system is installed on a particular system, the following command can be used: % versions eoe2.sw.oampkg | grep oampkg I eoe2.sw.oampkg 03/25/94 ATT Packaging Utility % In the above case, the packaging system is installed and the steps below should be performed. If no output is returned by the command, the subsystem is not installed and no further action is required. *IF* the packaging subsystem is installed, the following steps can be used to neutralize the exposure by changing permissions on select programs of the eoe2.sw.oampkg subsystem. There is no patch for this issue. 1) Become the root user on your system. % /bin/su Password: # 2) Change the permissions on the following programs. # /sbin/chmod 755 /usr/pkg/bin/pkgadjust # /sbin/chmod 755 /usr/pkg/bin/abspath 3) Return to the previous user state. # exit % - ----------------------------------------- - --- SGI Security Information/Contacts --- - ----------------------------------------- Past SGI Advisories and security patches can be obtained via anonymous FTP from sgigate.sgi.com or its mirror, ftp.sgi.com. These security patches and advisories are provided freely to all interested parties. For issues with the patches on the FTP sites, email can be sent to cse-security-alert@csd.sgi.com. For assistance obtaining or working with security patches, please contact your SGI support provider. If there are questions about this document, email can be sent to cse-security-alert@csd.sgi.com. 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. =========================FORWARDED TEXT ENDS HERE============================= CERT publications, information about FIRST representatives, and other security-related information are available for anonymous FTP from ftp://info.cert.org/pub/ CERT advisories and bulletins are also posted on the USENET newsgroup comp.security.announce To be added to our mailing list for CERT advisories and bulletins, send your email address to cert-advisory-request@cert.org If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT Coordination Center or your representative in the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). If you wish to send sensitive incident or vulnerability information to CERT staff by electronic mail, we strongly advise you to encrypt your message. 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