Re: AIX/Gradient iFOR/LS bug: follows symlinks

From: Troy A. Bollinger (troyat_private)
Date: Mon Feb 09 1998 - 15:39:51 PST

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    Quoting Joerg Schumacher (schumaat_private):
    > AIX 4.1 includes the iFOR/LS (formerly known as NetLS) license server=20
    > from Gradient Technologies.  Some parts of this system (NCS, server and=
    =20
    > client libs) use a cache file (/tmp/last_uuid, mode 0666), which will be=
    =20
    > created on the fly if missing.  The code has the classical file open bug:=
    =20
    > it will happily follow any symlink.
    >=20
    > I guess IBM and Gradient had their chance to fix this bug, since I
    > reported it back in december 1996 (no typo, more than a year ago).=20
    > IIRC, HP-UX had (and may still have) this bug too.
    >=20
    20
    Yes, we've had more than ample time to fix this and I personally thank
    you for the patience you've shown.  Unfortunately, it's difficult to
    fix the bugs when you don't own the source code (I guess bugtraq
    readers already know that ;-).  For those keeping score this is PMR
    1540x,025,724.
    
    A simple workaround for this is to remove and recreate /tmp/last_uuid
    in /sbin/rc.boot.  This will limit the attack to filling the /tmp
    partition.
    
    > Some complaints: =20
    >=20
    >    to IBM: I guess it's time to review the APAR process wrt security. =20
    >            Having a security related bug hanging around for more than a=
    =20
    >          year at low priority is definitely a bad thing.
    >=20
    
    Hopefully, this case will be an exception.  I'd like to think that the
    process has improved significantly (e.g. the recent routed bug posted
    to bugtraq had a pretty fast followup).
    
    >    to IBM-ERS: I've submitted a Cc of my original bug report to=20
    >              ers-techat_private but I never got any feedback.
    >              Granted, you don't want to us to send any reports via
    >              email, but this "small planet" isn't small enough to let me
    >              call you via phone for free.
    >   =20
    >    to DFN-CERT: Where have you been?  No tracking seen despite my Cc.
    >              =20
    
    IIRC, IBM-ERS and DFN-CERT harassed me about this several times...   ;-)
    
    > Thanks to Troy Bollinger (troyat_private) for pointing out some =20
    > other insecurely created temporary files.=20
    
    I also pointed out how to fix them didn't I?   :-)
    
    I'll update the list I sent you and post it here.  Most of the
    world-writable files (with the exception of /tmp/last_uuid) have been
    fixed.  I'd appreciate hearing about any I missed.
    
    >=20
    > Regards,
    > Joerg=20
    20
    Thanks.
    --=20
    Troy Bollinger                            troyat_private
    AIX Security Development        security-alertat_private
    PGP keyid: 1024/0xB7783129 Troy's opinions are not IBM policy
    
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