-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ________________________________________________________________________________ Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin Bulletin Number: #00178 Date: November 9, 1998 Cross-Ref: ISS Security Advisory: Hidden community string in SNMP implementation Title: SNMP ________________________________________________________________________________ The information contained in this Security Bulletin is provided "AS IS." Sun makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect to the information contained in this Security Bulletin. ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED AND EXCLUDED TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW. IN NO EVENT WILL SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, PROFIT OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS SECURITY BULLETIN, EVEN IF SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. If any of the above provisions are held to be in violation of applicable law, void, or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, then such provisions are waived to the extent necessary for this disclaimer to be otherwise enforceable in such jurisdiction. ________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Background Solstice Enterprise Agents(tm) expands the scope of enterprise management by providing a comprehensive development and runtime environment enabling the creation of custom, extensible agents for device and system management for the Solaris(tm) operating environment. Solstice Enterprise Agents(SEA) supports both the Simple Network Management Protocol and DMI protocols. Simple Network Management Protocol(SNMP) was designed to allow the remote management of systems and devices on a network. SNMP relies on processes known as master agents and subagents. Upon invocation, agents read various configuration files and maintain Management Information Bases(MIBs). Access to information in the MIBs can be controlled by community strings. A default community string is present in the Sun SNMP subagent that may be exploited by remote attackers to modify system parameters or execute arbitrary commands with root privileges. SEA was initially available as an unbundled product and later bundled with Solaris 2.6 at version 1.0.1. 2. Recommendations Sun recommends that sites running Solaris 2.6 and sites running SEA on Solaris 2.5.1 upgrade the SEA software to SEA 1.0.3. SEA 1.0.3 is bundled with Solaris 7. SEA 1.0.3 is available for Solaris 2.6, 2.6_x86, 2.5.1, and 2.5.1_x86 and may be downloaded from: http://www.sun.com/solstice/products/ent.agents/ Sun also recommends that sites running SEA 1.0 on Solaris 2.4 and 2.5 either disable SEA (see section 3) or upgrade the operating system to Solaris 7 if possible. Sites upgrading to Solaris 2.5.1 or 2.6 may obtain SEA 1.0.3 from the URL listed above. 3. Workaround Sun recommends that you disable SEA on vulnerable systems until SEA 1.0.3 is installed. To determine if your system is using SEA, use pkginfo on one of the following SEA packages: SUNWmibii, SUNWsacom, SUNWsadmi, SUNWsasnm. For example, on SEA 1.0 and 1.0.1, a pkginfo on SUNWmibii will display as follows: % pkginfo SUNWmibii system SUNWmibii Solstice Enterprise Agent SNMP daemon On SEA 1.0.2: % pkginfo SUNWmibii system SUNWmibii Solstice Enterprise Agents 1.0.2 SNMP daemon To disable SEA, perform the following steps: % su Password: # /etc/init.d/init.snmpdx stop # mv /etc/rc3.d/S76snmpdx /etc/rc3.d/DISABLED_S76snmpdx _______________________________________________________________________________ APPENDICES A. Patches listed in this bulletin are available to all Sun customers via World Wide Web at: B. Checksums for the patches listed in this bulletin are available via World Wide Web at: C. Sun security bulletins are available via World Wide Web at: D. Sun Security Coordination Team's PGP key is available via World Wide Web at: E. To report or inquire about a security problem with Sun software, contact one or more of the following: - Your local Sun answer centers - Your representative computer security response team, such as CERT - Sun Security Coordination Team. Send email to: security-alert@sun.com F. To receive information or subscribe to our CWS (Customer Warning System) mailing list, send email to: security-alert@sun.com with a subject line (not body) containing one of the following commands: Command Information Returned/Action Taken _______ _________________________________ help An explanation of how to get information key Sun Security Coordination Team's PGP key list A list of current security topics query [topic] The email is treated as an inquiry and is forwarded to the Security Coordination Team report [topic] The email is treated as a security report and is forwarded to the Security Coordination Team. Please encrypt sensitive mail using Sun Security Coordination Team's PGP key send topic A short status summary or bulletin. For example, to retrieve a Security Bulletin #00138, supply the following in the subject line (not body): send #138 subscribe Sender is added to our mailing list. To subscribe, supply the following in the subject line (not body): subscribe cws your-email-address Note that your-email-address should be substituted by your email address. unsubscribe Sender is removed from the CWS mailing list. ________________________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems, Solaris and SunOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. This Security Bulletin may be reproduced and distributed, provided that this Security Bulletin is not modified in any way and is attributed to Sun Microsystems, Inc. and provided that such reproduction and distribution is performed for non-commercial purposes. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNkckH7dzzzOFBFjJAQEQDQQAqJ/PyitZQ5vuRcXE9/+d/JrOXT55EOqS VtA9G0DJ2cJDXbb1nAsEsCQBkO2zs0/iGou4cwLgKYlqcoGOuAItud7/NKPEg20s hcwb5kDcMQf6Hxpp0etN86IdYz5Sad58TieEKUtR0ywEVS1QOx+lWLwkVioGRpSF hWC02pPn1Bw= =KVt9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----