[ COBALT ] Security Advisory - Sendmail

From: Jeff Bilicki (jeffbat_private)
Date: Wed Nov 24 1999 - 02:40:48 PST

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    Cobalt Networks -- Security Advisory -- 11.24.1999
    
    Problem:
    Sendmail up to the recent 8.9.x versions - allows any user with a shell
    access to pass the '-bi' parameter to /usr/sbin/sendmail. This will
    result in aliases database rebuild. The alias database is opened in the
    following way:
    
    5366 open("/etc/aliases.db", O_RDWR|O_TRUNC) = 6
    
    There's approx 0.1 sec delay due to /etc/aliases.db processing (on many
    common systems). Meantime, luser might deliver any signals to the
    Sendmail process, like SIGKILL. After that, /etc/aliases.db will be left
    in an unusable state (no EOF marker), causing DoS:
    
    220 Marchew ESMTP Mail Service at nimue.ids.pl ready. mail from: myself
    451 Cannot open hash database /etc/aliases: Invalid argument rcpt to:
    lcamtuf
    503 Need MAIL before RCPT
    
    This vulnerability and problem text were produced by Michal Zalewski
    <lcamtufat_private>
    
    Relevant products and architectures (all languages)
    Product         Architecture    	Vulnerable
    Qube1		MIPS                    yes
    Qube2           MIPS                    yes
    RaQ1            MIPS                    yes
    RaQ2            MIPS                    yes
    RaQ3            x86                     yes
    
    Conflicts:
    -RaQ 1-
    After installing the RPM you will need to move /etc/sendmail.cf.rpmsave
    to /etc/sendmail.cf and restart sendmail
    -Qube1-
    See *Note
    
    RPMS:
    -RaQ 3-
    ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/experimental/security/i386/sendmail-8.9.3-C7.i386.rpm
    -RaQ 2 Qube 2-
    ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/experimental/security/mips/sendmail-8.9.3-C7.mips.rpm
    -RaQ 1 Qube 1-
    ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/experimental/security/mips/sendmail-8.8.8-1C4.mips.rpm
    
    SRPMS:
    -RaQ 3 RaQ 2 Qube 2-
    ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/experimental/security/srpms/sendmail-8.9.3-C7.src.rpm
    -RaQ 1 Qube 1-
    ftp://ftp.cobaltnet.com/pub/experimental/security/mips/sendmail-8.8.8-1C4.mips.rpm
    
    MD5 sums			Package Name
    -------------------------------------------------------------
    sendmail-8.9.3-C7.i386.rpm 9b28a5650f77a3d7bbeec2db064c2e82
    sendmail-8.9.3-C7.mips.rpm 9a27c638b77d833c41d42bfad7b21b7b
    sendmail-8.9.3-C7.src.rpm 3c6ce162b6de3cd072ed3f99e2200d3e
    sendmail-8.8.8-1C4.mips.rpm 5590d0a0955fef086e219aa67245aa86
    sendmail-8.8.8-1C4.src.rpm 10bb1f7ac3e6b1b817f4b6e4d17504ca
    
    You can verify each rpm using the following command:
    rpm --checksig  [package]
    
    To install, use the following command, while logged in as root:
    rpm -U [package]
    
    The package file format (pkg) for this fix is currently in testing, and
    will be available in the near future.
    
    Jeff Bilicki
    Cobalt Networks
    
    
    *Note for Qube 1
    After installing the RPM you will need to move /etc/sendmail.cf.rpmsave
    to /etc/sendmail.cf
    
    If you are installing this sendmail on a Qube 1 you will need to do a
    couple of thing before installing the rpm.  After Qube1 we moved all the
    rc scripts into initscripts-cobalt, due to the way the rpm was built you
    might need to do the following.  (This will be automated when the
    package is released)
    1. Type as root:
    cp /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail /root/sendmail.tmp
    2. Install the rpm using: rpm -U sendmail-8.8.8-1C4.mips.rpm
    3. Type as root:
    mv /root/sendmail.tmp /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail
    mv /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K30sendmail.rpmsave /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K30sendmail
    mv /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K30sendmail.rpmsave /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K30sendmail
    mv /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S60sendmail.rpmsave /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S60sendmail
    mv /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S80sendmail.rpmsave /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S80sendmail
    mv /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S80sendmail.rpmsave /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S80sendmail
    mv /etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K30sendmail.rpmsave /etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K30sendmail
    



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