N-Base Vulnerability Advisory Followup

From: TTSG (ttsgat_private)
Date: Wed Jul 22 1998 - 10:25:28 PDT

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                        The Telecom Security Group
                         http://www.ttsg.com/TTSG/
    
    
                    ** TTSG VULNERABILITY ADVISORY **
                            **FOLLOWUP**
    
    Summary:
    
    Date:                   July 22, 1998
    Subject:                N-Base vulnerability followup
    Contact Address:        nbaseat_private
    Result:                 Comprimise security of switch, or render
                                    inoperable
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Introduction :
    
      On July 20,1998 The Telecom issued a "Vulnerability Advisory"
    concerning N-Base products (http://www.ttsg.com/TTSG/nbase.advisory.txt).
    It was then mailed to the "BUGTRAQ" mailing list.
    (http://www.geek-girl.com/bugtraq/1998_3/0184.html).
    
      That same day, Geoff Cummings (geoffat_private) posted a reply
    (http://www.geek-girl.com/bugtraq/1998_3/0201.html). Parts of that
    reply are included in the followup without the authors permission,
    however, since it was posted in a public list and has been archived
    we believe this is acceptable since we have given him credit.
    
      The author of the original advisory then requested the following
    followup be distributed.(http://www.ttsg.com/TTSG/nbase.advisory.followup.txt).
    (It is in an email reply format to Geoff Commins' email to the Bugtraq
    list)
    
      If there are any future followups, they will be posted on
    http://www.ttsg.com/TTSG/ , and emailed to the Bugtraq list sans the
    headers and copyright/trademark.  This is not to imply they are not still
    in effect.
    
    ===========================================================================
    Geoff Cummins <geoffat_private> writes:
    > Currently, supported switches with the following ROM updates do have real
    > fixes for password/tftp problems.
    >
    > For MegaSwitch II:    Model           ROM
    >                       NH2012          2.54
    >                       NH2012R         2.54
    >                       NH2015          2.51
    >                       NH2048          1.33
    >
    > With these configurations you can do the following to fix these problems.
    
      What about your other switches, such as the NH2016? How about the NH208/
    215?
    
      No notice of these problems (nor any notice about the fix) was sent to your
    customers (or at least neither I nor 2 other customers I speak to regularly
    have heard anything). From correspondence with security contacts at some of
    your OEM's, they were not notified either. There doesn't seem to be any infor-
    mation on the N Base web site or FTP servers. I don't see how existing cus-
    tomers are expected to discover the problem and that a fix is available for
    some (but not all) N Base products.
    
      Why was there no response to the two original security reports sent to N
    Base?
    
      Why are there still default passwords at all, and why should customers have
    to do a:
    
    > set-full-sec enable  (this disables the backdoor passwords)
    >
    > set-sw-file  XXX     (where XXX is the name you want to call your SNMP
    >                       software update file)
    >
    > set-par-file XXX     (where XXX is the name you want to call your
    >                       parameters file)
    >
    > del-user user       (By default there are two users "super", and "user".
    >                      "super" has supervisor priveldges, "user" is just a
    >                      default.  To secure the system, you should delete
    >                      the "user" account.)
    
      in order to "secure their switches"? Shouldn't the default provide a reason-
    able level of security?
    ===========================================================================
    The Telcom Security Group
    PO Box 69
    Newburgh, NY 12551
    1.800.596.6882
    http://www.ttsg.com/TTSG/
    ===========================================================================
    Copyright July 1998  The Telcom Security Group
    
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    ===========================================================================
    
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