__________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN MySQL Password Authentication Vulnerability March 1, 2000 19:00 GMT Number K-025 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: A vulnerability has been identified in the MySQL database server. PLATFORM: MySQL database servers (versions prior to 3.22.32) DAMAGE: Given a valid username, the normal password authentication mechanism can be bypassed. SOLUTION: Upgrade, install newer version, or apply workaround that is listed below. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY Risk is medium. The attacker would have to have to know the ASSESSMENT: username on the database. ______________________________________________________________________________ [ Start FreeBSD Advisory ] ============================================================================= FreeBSD-SA-00:05 Security Advisory FreeBSD, Inc. Topic: MySQL allows bypassing of password authentication Category: ports Module: mysql322-server Announced: 2000-02-28 Affects: Ports collection before the correction date. Corrected: 2000-02-15 FreeBSD only: NO I. Background MySQL is a popular SQL database client/server distributed as part of the FreeBSD ports collection. II. Problem Description The MySQL database server (versions prior to 3.22.32) has a flaw in the password authentication mechanism which allows anyone who can connect to the server to access databases without requiring a password, given a valid username on the database - in other words, the normal password authentication mechanism can be completely bypassed. MySQL is not installed by default, nor is it "part of FreeBSD" as such: it is part of the FreeBSD ports collection, which contains over 3100 third-party applications in a ready-to-install format. FreeBSD makes no claim about the security of these third-party applications, although an effort is underway to provide a security audit of the most security-critical ports. III. Impact The successful attacker will have all of the access rights of that database user and may be able to read, add or modify records. If you have not chosen to install the mysql322-server port/package, then your system is not vulnerable. IV. Workaround Use appropriate access-control lists to limit which hosts can initiate connections to MySQL databases - see: http://www.mysql.com/Manual_chapter/manual_Privilege_system.html for more information. If unrestricted remote access to the database is not required, consider using ipfw(8) or ipf(8), or your network perimeter firewall, to prevent remote access to the database from untrusted machines (MySQL uses TCP port 3306 for network communication). Note that users who have access to machines which are allowed to initiate database connections (e.g. local users) can still exploit the security hole. V. Solution One of the following: 1) Upgrade your entire ports collection and rebuild the mysql322-server port. 2) Reinstall a new package obtained from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3- stable/databases/mysql-server-3.22.32.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4- current/databases/mysql-server-3.22.32.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4- current/databases/mysql-server-3.22.32.tgz 3) download a new port skeleton for the mysql322-server port from: http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ and use it to rebuild the port. 4) Use the portcheckout utility to automate option (3) above. The portcheckout port is available in /usr/ports/devel/portcheckout or the package can be obtained from: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/packages/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz [ End FreeBSD Advisory ] ______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of FreeBSD, Inc. for the information contained in this bulletin. ______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CIAC is located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. CIAC is also a founding member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, a global organization established to foster cooperation and coordination among computer security teams worldwide. 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