(OpenBSD Issues Fix) Re: 'pppd' Race Condition in Chmod() Call May Allow Local Users to Obtain Root Privileges on the System
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SecurityTracker Alert ID: 1004905 |
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SecurityTracker URL: http://securitytracker.com/id/1004905
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CVE Reference:
GENERIC-MAP-NOMATCH
(Links to External Site)
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Date: Jul 31 2002
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Impact:
Modification of system information, Root access via local system
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Fix Available: Yes Vendor Confirmed: Yes
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Description:
A vulnerability was reported in several vendors' Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) daemon implementations. A local user may be able to obtain root privileges on the system.
A race condition vulnerability has been reported in 'pppd' that may allow a local user to change the permissions of an arbitrary file. The flaw apparently exists in 'main.c' and is due to an unsafe chmod() call.
A local user can reportedly specify a file as a tty device, causing pppd to open the file and record the original permissions of the file. If pppd subsequently fails to initialize the tty device (due to a failure of tcgetattr(3), for example), then pppd will then attempt to restore the original permissions by calling chmod(2). A local user can reportedly create a symbolic link from the file to another critical file on the system in such a manner that the call to chmod() will cause the original file permissions to be incorrectly applied to the linked file.
A local user could exploit this flaw to cause pppd to change the permissions on a critical root owned file so that the local user can edit the critical file. This could result in the local user gaining root privileges on the system.
The pppd program is reportedly installed with set user id (setuid) root privileges on most systems, so this flaw allows any file's permissions to be changed.
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Impact:
A local user may be able to modify files on the system with root level privileges, giving the local user root access on the system.
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Solution:
OpenBSD has issued the following patches.
For OpenBSD 3.1:
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/3.1/common/011_pppd.patch
For OpenBSD 3.0:
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/3.0/common/028_pppd.patch
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Vendor URL: www.openbsd.org/ (Links to External Site)
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Cause:
Access control error, State error
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Underlying OS:
UNIX (OpenBSD)
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Message History:
This archive entry is a follow-up to the message listed below.
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Source Message Contents
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Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 11:09:39 -0400
Subject: OpenBSD pppd patch
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OpenBSD 3.1
011: SECURITY FIX: July 29, 2002
A race condition exists in the pppd(8) daemon which may cause it to
alter the file permissions of an arbitrary file. A source code patch
exists which remedies the problem.
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/3.1/common/011_pppd.patch
OpenBSD 3.0:
028: SECURITY FIX: July 29, 2002
A race condition exists in the pppd(8) daemon which may cause it to
alter the file permissions of an arbitrary file. A source code patch
exists which remedies the problem.
ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/3.0/common/028_pppd.patch
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