_____________________________________________________
                          The U.S. Department of Energy
                       Computer Incident Advisory Capability
                              ___  __ __    _     ___
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                             \___  __|__  /   \  \___
               _____________________________________________________

                               INFORMATION BULLETIN

                            FTP Daemon Vulnerabilities


April 14, 1994 1130 PDT                                            Number E-17
______________________________________________________________________________

PROBLEM:        Vulnerabilities in several implementations of the FTP daemon.
PLATFORM:       Unix systems with the following implementations of the FTP
                daemon: DECWRL ftpd versions before 5.93, wuarchive ftpd
                versions 2.0-2.3, and BSDI ftpd version 1.1. prior to patch 5.
DAMAGE:         Anyone (remote or local) can gain root access on a host
                running a vulnerable daemon.
SOLUTION:       Upgrade to a secure version of the FTP daemon.
______________________________________________________________________________

VULNERABILITY   Details of these vulnerabilities are being actively discussed
ASSESSMENT:     on several Internet mailing lists.  CIAC urges affected sites
                to upgrade immediately.
______________________________________________________________________________

         Critical Information about FTP Daemon Vulnerabilities

CIAC has received information concerning the existence of two vulnerabilities
in FTP daemons derived from the DECWRL ftpd source code.  The following FTP
daemons are known to be vulnerable:

   - DECWRL ftpd versions before 5.93
   - wuarchive ftpd versions 2.0-2.3
   - BSDI ftpd version 1.1 prior to patch 5

The first vulnerability involves the SITE EXEC command feature of these FTP
daemons.  It only affects those daemons in which the SITE EXEC functions have
been explicitly activated; they are not enabled by default.  The vulnerability
allows any user, remote or local, to execute commands as root on the system
running the FTP daemon.  The second vulnerability is the result of a race
condition in the daemon.  It allows the creation of setuid root files on the
FTP server, permitting unauthorized access to the system.

There is no known workaround to remove both vulnerabilities; therefore, CIAC
strongly advises affected sites to upgrade to one of the versions of the
daemon listed below.  If an upgrade cannot be completed in a timely manner,
FTP service should be disabled by commenting out the ftp configuration line in
/etc/inetd.conf and restarting inetd.  Disabling only anonymous FTP does not
remove the vulnerabilities.


Upgrade Information
===================

Version 2.4 of wuarchive ftpd is available via anonymous FTP from
wuarchive.wustl.edu in the directory /packages/wuarchive-ftpd.  A patch
to upgrade from version 2.3 to 2.4 is also available:

                      BSD        SVR4         
   File               Checksum   Checksum   MD5 Digital Signature
   -----------------  ---------  ---------  --------------------------------
   wu-ftpd-2.4.tar.Z  38213 181  20337 362  cdcb237b71082fa23706429134d8c32e
   patch_2.3-2.4.Z    09291   8  51092  16  5558a04d9da7cdb1113b158aff89be8f


Version 5.93 of DECWRL ftpd is available via anonymous FTP from
gatekeeper.dec.com in the directory /pub/misc/vixie:

                      BSD        SVR4         
   File               Checksum   Checksum   MD5 Digital Signature
   -----------------  ---------  ---------  --------------------------------
   ftpd.tar.gz        38443 60   1710 119   ae624eb607b4ee90e318b857e6573500


For BSDI systems, patch 005 should be applied to version 1.1 of the BSD/386
software.  The patch file is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.bsdi.com in
the directory /bsdi/patches-1.1:

                      BSD        SVR4         
   File               Checksum   Checksum   MD5 Digital Signature
   -----------------  ---------  ---------  --------------------------------
   BU110-005          35337 272  54935 543  1f454d4d9d3e1397d1eff0432bd383cf


______________________________________________________________________________

CIAC wishes to thank the CERT Coordination Center for their response to this
problem.
______________________________________________________________________________

For additional information or assistance, please contact CIAC:
    Voice:   510-422-8193
    FAX:     510-423-8002
    STU-III: 510-423-2604
    E-mail:  ciac@llnl.gov

Previous CIAC Bulletins and other information are available via anonymous
FTP from irbis.llnl.gov (IP address 128.115.19.60).

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______________________________________________________________________________

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