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________________________________________________________________________________
        Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin
     
Bulletin Number:  #00193
Date:       January 5, 2000
Cross-Ref:    CERT Advisory CA-2000-01
Title:      Distributed Denial-of-Service Tools
________________________________________________________________________________

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

   Several Sun Microsystems customers have expressed concern about
   security issues raised in the recent "SANS Flash Alert For Solaris"
   message posted to several security mailing lists in the last few
   days. The issues cited in the posting have also been reported by
   CERT, NIPC and other key organizations.

   The issues raised in these advisories and postings are not new, and
   no new vulnerabilities are involved. Also, no "virus"- or
   "worm"-like software is involved. Further, there is no related "Y2K"
   issue. (All of these possibilities have been proposed by concerned
   customers.)

   Rather, the problems described in these advisories are caused by
   software tools that are deliberately installed on machines which
   have already been compromised. The tools may then be subsequently
   used to launch denial-of-service attacks. The tools (known as
   Trinoo, TFN, TFN2K, and Stacheldraht) are not capable of spreading
   on their own, but do make use of already compromised hosts as
   "client" machines to flood networks or targeted systems, causing
   denial-of-service conditions.

   Sun and other organizations, such as CERT, believe that many of the
   hosts used as attack "clients" have been compromised via
   exploitation of known vulnerabilities such as:

     o rpc.statd port bounce
     o rpc.cmsd buffer overflows
     o tooltalk buffer overflows
     
   Sun patches are currently available for each of these
   vulnerabilities.  (For details, see "Recommendations" section below.)
   Again: the new attack methods do not exploit new vulnerabilities.
  
   The pertinent CERT advisory is at:

  http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2000-01.html


2. Recommendations

   Sun recommends that you install all applicable security patches listed
   in Sun security bulletins #00186 and #00188 to prevent exploitation of
   the rpc.statd and rpc.cmsd vulnerabilities. Sun also recommends that
   you keep your systems current on security patches and install all 
   applicable patches listed at:
   
http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/show.pl?target=patches/patch-license&nav=pub-p   
   
_______________________________________________________________________________
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 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 2000 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.

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