From agent99@boytoy.csd.sgi.com Thu Mar 26 21:51:01 1998
From: SGI Security Coordinator <agent99@boytoy.csd.sgi.com>
To: agent99@sgi.com
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 14:16:45 -0800
Subject: pset Buffer Overrun Vulnerability

DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS - NONE - FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

______________________________________________________________________________
                Silicon Graphics Inc. Security Advisory

        Title:   pset Buffer Overrun Vulnerability
        Title:   AUSCERT AA-97.20, CERT CA-97.21
        Number:  19970506-02-PX
        Date:    March 26, 1998
______________________________________________________________________________

Silicon Graphics provides this information freely to the SGI user community
for its consideration, interpretation, implementation and use.   Silicon
Graphics recommends that this information be acted upon as soon as possible.

Silicon Graphics provides the information in this Security Advisory on
an "AS-IS" basis only, and disclaims all warranties with respect thereto,
express, implied or otherwise, including, without limitation, any warranty
of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  In no event shall
Silicon Graphics be liable for any loss of profits, loss of business, loss
of data or for any indirect, special, exemplary, incidental or consequential
damages of any kind arising from your use of, failure to use or improper
use of any of the instructions or information in this Security Advisory.
______________________________________________________________________________

- -----------------------
- --- Issue Specifics ---
- -----------------------

Under normal operation, the pset(1M) program is used to display and manage
proccessor set information.

Unfortunately, a buffer overrun has been discovered in the pset(1M) program
which could allow arbitrary commands to be run as the privileged
user root.

Silicon Graphics Inc. has investigated the issue and recommends the
following steps for neutralizing the exposure.  It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
that these measures be implemented on ALL vulnerable SGI systems.  This
issue will be corrected in future releases of IRIX.


- --------------
- --- Impact ---
- --------------

The pset(1M) program is installed by default on IRIX 5.x through 6.3 .
IRIX 6.4 does not have the pset(1M) program.

With a local account, the pset(1M) buffer overrun vulnerability can be
exploited locally and remotely.

The pset(1M) buffer overrun vulnerability can be utilized to execute commands
with root privileges.

The pset(1M) buffer overrun vulnerability has been publicly discussed
in Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists and also reported in AUSCERT
AA-97.20 and CERT CA-97.21.


- --------------------------
- --- Temporary Solution ---
- --------------------------

Although patches are available for this issue, it is realized that
there may be situations where installing the patches immediately may
not be possible.

The steps below can be used to remove the vulnerability by removing
the permissions of the pset(1M) program.

     1) Become the root user on the system.

                % /bin/su -
                Password:
                #

     2) Change the permissions on the pset(1M) program.


                # /bin/chmod 500 /sbin/pset


                           ************
                           *** NOTE ***
                           ************

               Removing permissions from /sbin/pset will prevent
               non-root users from using the pset(1M) program

     3) Return to previous level.

                # exit
                %



- ----------------
- --- Solution ---
- ----------------

   OS Version     Vulnerable?     Patch #      Other Actions
   ----------     -----------     -------      -------------

   IRIX 3.x          no           not avail    Note 1
   IRIX 4.x          no           not avail    Note 1
   IRIX 5.0.x        yes          not avail    Note 1
   IRIX 5.1.x        yes          not avail    Note 1
   IRIX 5.2          yes          not avail    Note 1
   IRIX 5.3          yes          2176
   IRIX 6.0.x        yes          not avail    Note 1
   IRIX 6.1          yes          not avail    Note 1
   IRIX 6.2          yes          2459
   IRIX 6.3          yes          2792
   IRIX 6.4          no


   NOTES

     1) upgrade to currently supported IRIX operating system or
        see "Temporary Solution" section.



Patches are available via anonymous FTP and your service/support provider.

The SGI anonymous FTP site is sgigate.sgi.com (204.94.209.1) or its
mirror, ftp.sgi.com.   Security information and patches can be found
in the ~ftp/security and ~ftp/patches directories, respectfully.



                 ##### Patch File Checksums ####

The actual patch will be a tar file containing the following files:

Filename:                 README.patch.2176
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    45198 9 README.patch.2176
Algorithm #2 (sum):       63297 9 README.patch.2176
MD5 checksum:             A0305D199A83509F2356204DD4D5A4CA

Filename:                 patchSG0002176
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    48278 1 patchSG0002176
Algorithm #2 (sum):       29497 1 patchSG0002176
MD5 checksum:             271D2085A6666CD6B3F0B7288A802789

Filename:                 patchSG0002176.eoe1_sw
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    09555 36 patchSG0002176.eoe1_sw
Algorithm #2 (sum):       47593 36 patchSG0002176.eoe1_sw
MD5 checksum:             8332B895C7CC954CD9D8D57D3C834331

Filename:                 patchSG0002176.idb
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    01856 1 patchSG0002176.idb
Algorithm #2 (sum):       33647 1 patchSG0002176.idb
MD5 checksum:             CB1BD24A25D09DE321FA9D2844AF4035

Filename:                 README.patch.2459
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    64958 8 README.patch.2459
Algorithm #2 (sum):       46142 8 README.patch.2459
MD5 checksum:             CDE4AAAD19550272112CC45C994C2816

Filename:                 patchSG0002459
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    40511 2 patchSG0002459
Algorithm #2 (sum):       41842 2 patchSG0002459
MD5 checksum:             C60F579FEC78F06CD4932C01F4A8EC74

Filename:                 patchSG0002459.eoe_sw
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    15575 78 patchSG0002459.eoe_sw
Algorithm #2 (sum):       27593 78 patchSG0002459.eoe_sw
MD5 checksum:             18BD7723AFE4C421BF5A951F88794218

Filename:                 patchSG0002459.idb
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    54991 2 patchSG0002459.idb
Algorithm #2 (sum):       47185 2 patchSG0002459.idb
MD5 checksum:             4E15A06EFDBDDAEDD37867CECA904FC5

Filename:                 README.patch.2792
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    33572 8 README.patch.2792
Algorithm #2 (sum):       20950 8 README.patch.2792
MD5 checksum:             60FBC74C162FFB23E6441C2F336C0CAB

Filename:                 patchSG0002792
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    64174 1 patchSG0002792
Algorithm #2 (sum):       29815 1 patchSG0002792
MD5 checksum:             2582C992777A6065E3746BD1ABE193C0

Filename:                 patchSG0002792.eoe_sw
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    56738 78 patchSG0002792.eoe_sw
Algorithm #2 (sum):       46753 78 patchSG0002792.eoe_sw
MD5 checksum:             3F01ED1B48B1CA62C0ED58DA24C118AF

Filename:                 patchSG0002792.idb
Algorithm #1 (sum -r):    07275 2 patchSG0002792.idb
Algorithm #2 (sum):       46019 2 patchSG0002792.idb
MD5 checksum:             9CC15F8952DA8ABAE23AD077751A3FC5


- ------------------------
- --- Acknowledgments ---
- ------------------------

Silicon Graphics wishes to thank AUSCERT, CERT Coordination Center
and the Internet community for their assistance in this matter.


- -----------------------------------------------------------
- --- Silicon Graphics Inc. Security Information/Contacts ---
- -----------------------------------------------------------

If there are questions about this document, email can be sent to
cse-security-alert@sgi.com.

                      ------oOo------

Silicon Graphics provides security information and patches for
use by the entire SGI community.  This information is freely
available to any person needing the information and is available
via anonymous FTP and the Web.

The primary SGI anonymous FTP site for security information and patches
is sgigate.sgi.com (204.94.209.1).  Security information and patches
are located under the directories ~ftp/security and ~ftp/patches,
respectively. The Silicon Graphics Security Headquarters Web page is
accessible at the URL http://www.sgi.com/Support/security/security.html.

For issues with the patches on the FTP sites, email can be sent to
cse-security-alert@sgi.com.

For assistance obtaining or working with security patches, please
contact your SGI support provider.

                      ------oOo------

Silicon Graphics provides a free security mailing list service
called wiretap and encourages interested parties to self-subscribe
to receive (via email) all SGI Security Advisories when they are
released. Subscribing to the mailing list can be done via the Web
(http://www.sgi.com/Support/security/wiretap.html) or by sending email
to SGI as outlined below.

% mail wiretap-request@sgi.com
subscribe wiretap <YourEmailAddress>
end
^d

In the example above, <YourEmailAddress> is the email address that you
wish the mailing list information sent to.  The word end must be on a
separate line to indicate the end of the body of the message. The
control-d (^d) is used to indicate to the mail program that you are
finished composing the mail message.


                      ------oOo------

Silicon Graphics provides a comprehensive customer World Wide Web site.
This site is located at http://www.sgi.com/Support/security/security.html.

                      ------oOo------

For reporting *NEW* SGI security issues, email can be sent to
security-alert@sgi.com or contact your SGI support provider.  A
support contract is not required for submitting a security report.

______________________________________________________________________________
  This information is provided freely to all interested parties and may
  be redistributed provided that it is not altered in any way, Silicon
  Graphics is appropriately credited and the document retains and
  includes its valid PGP signature.


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2

iQCVAwUBNRrLWrQ4cFApAP75AQGweQP/ezwPSdg5pVh9uDA+ktVMMo/yETYeQuh7
yYidXZ+gvHJNv6mMtgcMPu80QWOx+rZlr5m/2NGFyzSVgkqV/lr9y4I2k6nRTKQU
2sSw/fJQSNDz2P+mPudZUiViKqEJG08OW97k8fbi69zEOBBsHO5Q0A8G9WuvWSXq
rI8FH8uXcIA=
=wPoL
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----