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______________________________________________________________________________

                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:                ncurses
        Announcement-ID:        SuSE-SA:2000:043
        Date:                   Friday, October 27th, 2000 17:00 MEST
        Affected SuSE versions: 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.0
        Vulnerability Type:     local root compromise
        Severity (1-10):        5
        SuSE default package:   yes
        Other affected systems: systems with suid binaries linked against
                                ncurses

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved: ncurses
           problem description, discussion, solution and upgrade information
        2) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds
        3) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

1)  problem description, brief discussion, solution, upgrade information

    The ncurses library is used by many text/console based applications
    such as mail user agents, ftp clients and other command line utilities.
    A vulnerability has been found by Jouko Pynnönen <jouko@solutions.fi>
    in the screen handling functions: Insufficient boundary checking leads
    to a buffer overflow if a user supplies a specially drafted terminfo 
    database file. If an ncurses-linked binary is installed setuid root,
    it is possible for a local attacker to exploit this hole and gain 
    elevated privileges.

    There are several ways to fix the problem associated with the library.
    One of them would be to fix the library. However, it is not considered
    unlikely that another problem (similar to the one that has just been
    found) will be revealed in the future. Therefore, it is advisable to
    not link setuid applications against the ncurses library. As a permanent
    and cleaner fix, we do not provide update packages for the ncurses 
    library, but we suggest to change the modes of the relevant setuid 
    applications. There are three setuid-root applications contained in 
    SuSE-distributions:
    xaos (suid root for permissions to use SVGAlib on the Linux console)
    screen (does not need root privs in the latest version)
    cda, contained in the xmcd program, a command line CD player. It might 
        need elevated privileges to access the cdrom device file.    

    The script attached to the email with this announcement changes the 
    modes of files in the SuSE distribution that match both criteria 
    necessary to exploit the buffer overflow in the ncurses library: 
    1) the binary is setuid root,
    2) it is linked against libncurses.
    Please save the attachment under the name "perms-ncurses.sh" and 
    execute it using the command `bash ./perms-ncurses.sh´.
    It does:
        a) Check your version of the screen program installed.
        b) Changes /etc/permissions and /etc/permissions.easy to reflect
           the mode changes. The original files are saved, see
           /etc/permissions.* . (note: The chkstat program is being 
           executed by SuSEconfig, the SuSE configuration script, to set
           the modes of files according to the entries in the permission 
           files. The files being used are /etc/permissions, 
           /etc/permissions.local and /etc/permissions.easy unless the
           administrator changed the settings in /etc/rc.config .)
        c) Changes the file modes by hand by executing
           chmod 755 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xmcd/bin-Linux-$ARCH/cda \
                    /usr/bin/screen /usr/bin/xaos

    You can download the script from the following location:

    ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/noarch/perms-ncurses.sh
      md5sum:
      abe22607d45ecdb710f6061d5bbd3d13

______________________________________________________________________________

2)  Pending vulnerabilities in SuSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    A summary about ongoing issues will be included in the next security
    announcement.
______________________________________________________________________________

3)  standard appendix:

    SuSE runs two security mailing lists to which any interested party may
    subscribe:

    suse-security@suse.com
        -   general/linux/SuSE security discussion. 
            All SuSE security announcements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an email to 
                <suse-security-subscribe@suse.com>.

    suse-security-announce@suse.com
        -   SuSE's announce-only mailing list.
            Only SuSE's security annoucements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an email to
                <suse-security-announce-subscribe@suse.com>.

    For general information or the frequently asked questions (faq) 
    send mail to:
        <suse-security-info@suse.com> or
        <suse-security-faq@suse.com> respectively.

    ===============================================
    SuSE's security contact is <security@suse.com>.
    ===============================================

Regards,
Roman Drahtmueller.
- - -- 
 -                                                                      -
| Roman Drahtmueller     <draht@suse.de> //          "Caution: Cape does |
  SuSE GmbH - Security           Phone: //       not enable user to fly."
| Nuernberg, Germany    +49-911-740530 // (Batman Costume warning label) |
 -                                                                      -
______________________________________________________________________________

    The information in this advisory may be distributed or reproduced,
    provided that the advisory is not modified in any way.
    SuSE GmbH makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect 
    to the information contained in this security advisory.

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  2048/3D25D3D9 1999/03/06 SuSE Security Team <security@suse.de>

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