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________________________________________________________________________________
        Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin
     
Bulletin Number:  #00191
Date:       December 29, 1999
Cross-Ref:    CERT CA-99-16
Title:      sadmind
________________________________________________________________________________

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.

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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.  Bulletins Topics

    Sun announces the release of patches for Solaris(tm) 7, 2.6, 2.5.1,
    2.5, 2.4, and 2.3 (SunOS(tm) 5.7, 5.6, 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4 and 5.3), which 
    relate to a vulnerability with sadmind.

    Sun recommends that you install the patches listed in section 4 
    immediately on systems running SunOS 5.7, 5.6, 5.5.1, and 5.5 and 
    on systems with Solstice AdminSuite (AdminSuite) installed. If you have 
    installed a version of AdminSuite prior to version 2.3, please upgrade 
    to AdminSuite 2.3 before installing the AdminSuite patches listed in 
    section 4.
    
    Sun also recommends that you:
    
    - disable sadmind if you do not use it by commenting the 
      following line in /etc/inetd.conf:
      
        100232/10 tli rpc/udp wait root /usr/sbin/sadmind sadmind
         
    - set the security level used to authenticate requests to STRONG
      as follows, if you use sadmind:
      
        100232/10 tli rpc/udp wait root /usr/sbin/sadmind sadmind -S 2 
        
      The above changes to /etc/inetd.conf will take effect after inetd
      receives a hang-up signal.
        
2.  Who is Affected
  
    Vulnerable:     SunOS 5.7, 5.7_x86, 5.6, 5.6_x86, 5.5.1, 5.5.1_x86, 
            5.5, 5.5_x86, and 
            5.4, 5.4_x86, and 5.3 with AdminSuite installed

    Not vulnerable: All other supported versions of SunOS.
    
3.  Understanding the Vulnerability

    The sadmind program is installed by default on SunOS 5.7, 5.6, 5.5.1, 
    and 5.5. In SunOS 5.4 and 5.3, sadmind may be installed if the 
    Solstice AdminSuite packages are installed. The sadmind program 
    is installed in /usr/sbin. The program can be used to perform 
    distributed system administration operations remotely. A buffer overflow
    vulnerability has been discovered in sadmind which may be exploited by 
    a remote attacker to execute arbitrary instructions and gain root access. 
    
4.  List of Patches

    The following patches are available in relation to the above problem.
    
    OS Version    Patch ID        
    __________    _________
    SunOS 5.7    108662-01   
    SunOS 5.7_x86  108663-01    
    SunOS 5.6    108660-01   
    SunOS 5.6_x86  108661-01   
    SunOS 5.5.1    108658-01
    SunOS 5.5.1_x86  108659-01 
    SunOS 5.5    108656-01
    SunOS 5.5_x86  108657-01
        
    AdminSuite Version    Patch ID
    __________________    ________
    2.3        104468-18  (see Note)
    2.3_x86      104469-18  (see Note)   
    
    Note: Install patch if AdminSuite is installed. AdminSuite may be 
          installed on SunOS 5.7, 5.6, 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4 or 5.3.
_______________________________________________________________________________    
Sun acknowledges, with thanks, Stanford University and the CERT Coordination 
Center for their assistance in this matter.
_______________________________________________________________________________
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) 
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        security-alert@sun.com
   
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________________________________________________________________________________

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 
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