-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ________________________________________________________________________________ Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin Bulletin Number: #00192 Date: December 29, 1999 Cross-Ref: CERT CA-99-11 Title: CDE and OpenWindows ________________________________________________________________________________ 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. Bulletin Topics Sun announces the release of patches for Solaris(tm) 7, 2.6, 2.5.1, 2.5, 2.4, 2.3 (SunOS(tm) 5.7, 5.6, 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4, 5.3), and SunOS 4.1.4, and 4.1.3_U1 which relate to various vulnerabilities in CDE and OpenWindows. Sun recommends that you install the patches listed in section 4 immediately on systems running SunOS 5.7, 5.6, 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4, 5.3, 4.1.4, and 4.1.3_U1. 2. Who is Affected Vulnerable: SunOS 5.7, 5.7_x86, 5.6, 5.6_x86, 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4, 5.3, 4.1.4, and 4.1.3_U1. Not vulnerable: All other supported versions of SunOS. 3. Understanding the Vulnerabilities The following vulnerabilities have been identified. 3.1 ToolTalk ttsession default authentication mechanism insecure The ToolTalk messaging utility, ttsession, allows independent applications to communicate without having direct knowledge of each other. The ttsession daemon is started automatically by any program that needs to send or receive a ToolTalk message. It uses AUTH_UNIX authentication by default. A local or remote attacker may manipulate certain environment variables (which are used by ttsession to determine how client messages are handled) to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the running ttsession. 3.2 CDE dtspcd relies on file-system based authentication The CDE desktop subprocess control program (dtspcd) is a network daemon that accepts requests from clients to execute commands and launch applications remotely. By manipulating predictable files used for authentication, a local attacker may exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary commands and gain root access. 3.3 CDE dtaction buffer overflow The dtaction utility allows applications or shell scripts, which are otherwise not connected into the CDE user environment, to request CDE actions be performed. A buffer overflow vulnerability has been discovered which may be exploited by a local attacker to execute arbitrary instructions and gain root access. 3.4 CDE ToolTalk shared library buffer overflow in TT_SESSION A buffer overflow vulnerability has been discovered in the ToolTalk shared library which may be exploited by a local attacker to execute arbitrary instructions and gain root access. 4. List of Patches Patches for vulnerability described in section 3.1 SunOS version Patch ID _____________ _________ 5.7 107893-04 5.7_x86 107894-04 5.6 105802-11 5.6_x86 105803-13 5.5.1 104489-10 5.5.1_x86 105496-08 5.5 104428-08 5.5_x86 105495-06 5.4 102734-05 108636-01 (see Note 1) 5.4_x86 108641-01 108637-01 (see Note 1) 5.3 Patch will be available in 2 weeks 4.1.4, 4.1.3_U1 Patch will be available in 2 weeks Note 1: Install patch if CDE 1.0.2 or 1.0.1 is installed. Patches for vulnerability described in section 3.2 CDE version SunOS version Patch ID ___________ _____________ _________ 1.3 5.7 108221-01 1.3_x86 5.7_x86 108222-01 1.2 5.6 108199-01 1.2_x86 5.6_x86 108200-01 1.0.2 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4 108205-01 1.0.2_x86 5.5.1_x86, 5.5_x86, 5.4_x86 108206-01 1.0.1 5.5, 5.4 108252-01 1.0.1_x86 5.5_x86, 5.4_x86 108253-01 Patches for vulnerability described in section 3.3 CDE version SunOS version Patch ID ___________ _____________ _________ 1.3 5.7 108219-01 1.3_x86 5.7_x86 108220-01 1.2 5.6 108201-01 1.2_x86 5.6_x86 108202-01 1.0.2 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4 108289-02 1.0.2_x86 5.5.1_x86, 5.5_x86, 5.4_x86 108290-03 1.0.1 5.5, 5.4 108254-01 1.0.1_x86 5.5_x86, 5.4_x86 108255-01 Patches for vulnerability described in section 3.4 SunOS version Patch ID _____________ _________ 5.7 107893-04 5.7_x86 107894-04 5.6 105802-11 5.6_x86 105803-13 5.5.1 104489-10 5.5.1_x86 105496-08 5.5 104428-08 5.5_x86 105495-06 5.4 102734-05 108636-01 (see Note 2) 5.4_x86 108641-01 108637-01 (see Note 2) 5.3 101495-04 4.1.4, 4.1.3_U1 100626-10 Note 2: Install patch if CDE 1.0.2 or 1.0.1 is installed. _______________________________________________________________________________ APPENDICES A. Patches listed in this bulletin are available to all Sun customers at: http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/show.pl?target=patches/patch-license&nav=pub-patches B. Checksums for the patches listed in this bulletin are available at: ftp://sunsolve.sun.com/pub/patches/CHECKSUMS C. Sun security bulletins are available at: http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/secBulletin.pl D. Sun Security Coordination Team's PGP key is available at: http://sunsolve.sun.com/pgpkey.txt E. To report or inquire about a security problem with Sun software, contact one or more of the following: - Your local Sun Solution Center - 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 1999 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 iQCVAwUBOGphQLdzzzOFBFjJAQFr5gP/VxSsGcD/QMwI5DRa45GBXXOOYWy/Tkxc icz4f44Em6G9hz4ShKQzejyVM/EpnRlLSWDUH3tZeIzhJ879uG8hOy0nn4l336e2 ff1LtSAmE43rtYzWsxqWcTLzDu5ZeXODOsvIq5c/ivliqs52lS69mpk5XQ79Z4EY wbaFgqh/GzI= =FJ9S -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----