caldera.1999-010.rsync
e16637980789c4f96d52c85067ad4b833ea5618be57f1e694d2237027938b521
From info@calderasystems.com Fri Apr 30 15:51:58 1999
From: Caldera Systems Information <info@calderasystems.com>
To: caldera-announce@rim.caldera.com
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 11:29:51 -0600
Reply-To: info@caldera.com
Subject: SECURITY [CSSA-1999:010.0] -- rsync may change directory permissions inadvertently
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______________________________________________________________________________
Caldera Systems, Inc. Security Advisory
Subject: rsync may change directory permissions inadvertently
Advisory number: CSSA-1999:010.0
Issue date: 1999 Apr 30
Cross reference:
______________________________________________________________________________
1. Problem Description
There's a security problem with rsync which can cause
the permissions of an users home directory to be changed.
The bug is fairly obscure, but it's fixed in ver 2.3.1
The problem happens if all of these conditions hold true:
1) the source file list contains exactly one filename and that
is the name of an empty directory
2) the source directory name is specified on the command line
as "somedir/" or "somedir/." or "." not as "somedir"
3) the destination directory doesn't exist
4) you have recursion and permission transfer enabled (the -a option
will do this)
5) the working directory of the receiving process is not the
destination directory (this happens when you do remote rsync
transfers)
(the short summary is that you need to be transferring an empty
directory into a non-existent directory)
In that case (which is quite rare) the permissions from the empty
directory in the source file list were set on the working directory of
the receiving process. In the case of a remote rsync over rsh or ssh
this means that the permissions on your home directory are changed to
those of the empty directory you are transferring.
This is a serious bug (and security hole) as it may change your home
directory permissions to allow other users access to your files. A
user can't exploit this hole deliberately to gain privileges (ie. this
is not an "active" security hole) but a system administrator could
easily be caught by the bug and inadvertently compromise the security
of their system.
To see if you have been hit by this bug you should look at the
permissions on your home directory. If they are not what you expect
then perhaps you have been bitten by this bug.
The fix is to chmod your home directory back to the correct
permissions and upgrade to rsync 2.3.1. The bug is in the receiving
side of rsync, so it is quite safe to continue to use older anonymous
rsync servers as long as you upgrade your client.
This bug has been present in all versions of rsync.
2. Vulnerable Versions
Systems: OpenLinux 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.2.
Packages: previous to rsync-2.3.1
3. Solutions
The proper solution is to upgrade to the rsync-2.3.1-1.i386.rpm
4. Location of Fixed Packages
The upgrade packages can be found on Caldera's FTP site at:
ftp://ftp.calderasystems.com/pub/OpenLinux/updates/2.2/current/RPMS/
The corresponding source code package can be found at:
ftp://ftp.calderaystems.com/pub/OpenLinux/updates/2.2/current/SRPMS
5. Installing Fixed Packages
Upgrade the affected packages with the following commands:
rpm -q rsync && rpm -U rsync-2.3.1-1.i386.rpm
6. Verification
The MD5 checksums (from the "md5sum" command) for these packages are:
76a89fabb96e61adb1df5c14d955c08b RPMS/rsync-2.3.1-1.i386.rpm
c16447d52d0166ab94666f2a4c1b9984 SRPMS/rsync-2.3.1-1.src.rpm
7. References
This and other Caldera security resources are located at:
http://www.calderasystems.com/news/security/index.html
Additional documentation on this problem can be found in:
This security fix closes Caldera's internal Problem Report 4509.
8. Disclaimer
Caldera Systems, Inc. is not responsible for the misuse of any of the
information we provide on this website and/or through our security
advisories. Our advisories are a service to our customers intended to
promote secure installation and use of Caldera OpenLinux.
______________________________________________________________________________
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