__________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN Updated ncompress Package Fixes Security Issue and Bug [Red Hat RHSA-2004:536-05] December 15, 2004 19:00 GMT Number P-062 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: There is a bug in the way ncompress handles long filenames. PLATFORM: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, ES, WS (v. 2.1) Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 for the Itanium Processor DAMAGE: A stack based buffer overflow when handling very long filenames. SOLUTION: Upgrade to the appropriate version. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is MEDIUM. An attacker could entice a user to decompress ASSESSMENT: a file with a very long filename which could lead to execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the decompress program. ______________________________________________________________________________ LINKS: CIAC BULLETIN: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/p-062.shtml ORIGINAL BULLETIN: https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004-536.html CVE/CAN: http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name= CAN-2001-1413 ______________________________________________________________________________ [***** Start Red Hat RHSA-2004:536-05 *****] Updated ncompress package fixes security issue and bug. Advisory: RHSA-2004:536-05 Last updated on: 2004-12-13 Affected Products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v. 2.1) Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v. 2.1) Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v. 2.1) Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 for the Itanium Processor CVEs (cve.mitre.org): CAN-2001-1413 back Security Advisory Details: An updated ncompress package that fixes a buffer overflow and problem in the handling of files larger than 2 GB is now available. The ncompress package contains the compress and uncompress file compression and decompression utilities, which are compatible with the original UNIX compress utility (.Z file extensions). A bug in the way ncompress handles long filenames has been discovered. ncompress versions 4.2.4 and earlier contain a stack based buffer overflow when handling very long filenames. It is possible that an attacker could execute arbitrary code on a victims machine by tricking the user into decompressing a carefully crafted filename. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2001-1413 to this issue. This updated ncompress package also fixes a problem in the handling of files larger than 2 GB. All users of ncompress should upgrade to this updated package, which contains fixes for these issues. Updated packages: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v. 2.1) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SRPMS: ncompress-4.2.4-37.src.rpm 514bcc89bdd8d5a71fc5d01ce2f2ac61 IA-32: ncompress-4.2.4-37.i386.rpm b3cd3462d6a09d8d7d14c4e7b2744923 IA-64: ncompress-4.2.4-37.ia64.rpm 36338acd3f00f119ed4b50fe2c67663d Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v. 2.1) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SRPMS: ncompress-4.2.4-37.src.rpm 514bcc89bdd8d5a71fc5d01ce2f2ac61 IA-32: ncompress-4.2.4-37.i386.rpm b3cd3462d6a09d8d7d14c4e7b2744923 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v. 2.1) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SRPMS: ncompress-4.2.4-37.src.rpm 514bcc89bdd8d5a71fc5d01ce2f2ac61 IA-32: ncompress-4.2.4-37.i386.rpm b3cd3462d6a09d8d7d14c4e7b2744923 Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 for the Itanium Processor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SRPMS: ncompress-4.2.4-37.src.rpm 514bcc89bdd8d5a71fc5d01ce2f2ac61 IA-64: ncompress-4.2.4-37.ia64.rpm 36338acd3f00f119ed4b50fe2c67663d (The unlinked packages above are only available from the Red Hat Network) Solution Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied. Use Red Hat Network to download and update your packages. To launch the Red Hat Update Agent, use the following command: up2date For information on how to install packages manually, refer to the following Web page for the System Administration or Customization guide specific to your system: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/ Bugs fixed: (see bugzilla for more information) 126776 - [RHEL2.1] compress does not work if the file size is greater than 2GB 136661 - CAN-2001-1413 Stack-based buffer overflow in the comprexx function References: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2001-1413 http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/176363 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The listed packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key is available at: http://www.redhat.com/solutions/security/news/publickey/#key You can verify each package and see who signed it with the following command: rpm --checksig -v filename If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command: md5sum filename The Red Hat security contact is security@redhat.com. More contact details at http://www.redhat.com/solutions/security/news/contact.html [***** End Red Hat RHSA-2004:536-05 *****] _______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Red Hat 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. CIAC services are available to DOE, DOE contractors, and the NIH. CIAC can be contacted at: Voice: +1 925-422-8193 (7x24) FAX: +1 925-423-8002 STU-III: +1 925-423-2604 E-mail: ciac@ciac.org Previous CIAC notices, anti-virus software, and other information are available from the CIAC Computer Security Archive. World Wide Web: http://www.ciac.org/ Anonymous FTP: ftp.ciac.org PLEASE NOTE: Many users outside of the DOE, ESnet, and NIH computing communities receive CIAC bulletins. If you are not part of these communities, please contact your agency's response team to report incidents. Your agency's team will coordinate with CIAC. The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is a world-wide organization. A list of FIRST member organizations and their constituencies can be obtained via WWW at http://www.first.org/. This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. 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