__________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN PAM Security Update [RHSA-2005:805-6] October 27, 2005 22:00 GMT Number Q-035 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is a system security tool that allows system administrators to set an authentication policy without having to recompile programs that handle authentication. A bug was found in the way PAM's unix_chkpwd helper program validates user passwords when SELinux is enabled. PLATFORM: Red Hat Desktop (v. 4) Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v. 4) Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v. 4) Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v. 4) DAMAGE: Under normal circumstances, it is not possible for a local non-root user to verify the password of another local user with the unix_chkpwd command. A patch applied that adds SELinux functionality makes it possible for a local user to use brute force password guessing techniques against other local user accounts. SOLUTION: Upgrade to the appropriate version. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is LOW. Exploiting the vulnerability makes it possible ASSESSMENT: for a local user to use brute force password guessing techniques against other local user accounts. ______________________________________________________________________________ LINKS: CIAC BULLETIN: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/q-035.shtml ORIGINAL BULLETIN: https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2005-805.html CVE: http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name= CVE-2005-2977 ______________________________________________________________________________ [***** Start RHSA-2005:805-6 *****] Low: pam security update Advisory: RHSA-2005:805-6 Type: Security Advisory Issued on: 2005-10-26 Last updated on: 2005-10-26 Affected Products: Red Hat Desktop (v. 4) Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v. 4) Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v. 4) Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v. 4) CVEs (cve.mitre.org): CVE-2005-2977 Details An updated pam package that fixes a security weakness is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is a system security tool that allows system administrators to set an authentication policy without having to recompile programs that handle authentication. A bug was found in the way PAM's unix_chkpwd helper program validates user passwords when SELinux is enabled. Under normal circumstances, it is not possible for a local non-root user to verify the password of another local user with the unix_chkpwd command. A patch applied that adds SELinux functionality makes it possible for a local user to use brute force password guessing techniques against other local user accounts. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has assigned the name CVE-2005-2977 to this issue. All users of pam should upgrade to this updated package, which contains backported patches to correct these issues. Solution Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied. This update is available via Red Hat Network. To use Red Hat Network, launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command: up2date This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate RPMs being upgraded on your system. Updated packages Red Hat Desktop (v. 4) SRPMS: pam-0.77-66.13.src.rpm     40051eb6cad80e8188365f3f9edd39d1   IA-32: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852   x86_64: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     5a7c43f47d4311f07445c3f6b23fbd2c pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     e5fb54c971f5eb92368750ac34f7da49   Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v. 4) SRPMS: pam-0.77-66.13.src.rpm     40051eb6cad80e8188365f3f9edd39d1   IA-32: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852   IA-64: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-0.77-66.13.ia64.rpm     6fb2f1d6b0adca375262d60b26daa39a pam-devel-0.77-66.13.ia64.rpm     593c3eab0132c038560b39fa8b19abc8   PPC: pam-0.77-66.13.ppc.rpm     88ae8dc4c6226ef6720dd6fd6c9f9e9c pam-0.77-66.13.ppc64.rpm     9eac63c8111f9379ef0e40e6e0340ec8 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.ppc.rpm     f50a5cf887189104d713deddf78d2488 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.ppc64.rpm     99eebe771e1a4914530c8437cb4ac298   s390: pam-0.77-66.13.s390.rpm     afdbb7161cd67ca383726f0ae44753f2 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.s390.rpm     54d792d384bf8f91149368cac9a29758   s390x: pam-0.77-66.13.s390.rpm     afdbb7161cd67ca383726f0ae44753f2 pam-0.77-66.13.s390x.rpm     71a1f0909b8629d802ef67de663e0047 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.s390.rpm     54d792d384bf8f91149368cac9a29758 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.s390x.rpm     0c247e0b1a84b455d6a1e19c263499ba   x86_64: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     5a7c43f47d4311f07445c3f6b23fbd2c pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     e5fb54c971f5eb92368750ac34f7da49   Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (v. 4) SRPMS: pam-0.77-66.13.src.rpm     40051eb6cad80e8188365f3f9edd39d1   IA-32: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852   IA-64: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-0.77-66.13.ia64.rpm     6fb2f1d6b0adca375262d60b26daa39a pam-devel-0.77-66.13.ia64.rpm     593c3eab0132c038560b39fa8b19abc8   x86_64: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     5a7c43f47d4311f07445c3f6b23fbd2c pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     e5fb54c971f5eb92368750ac34f7da49   Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (v. 4) SRPMS: pam-0.77-66.13.src.rpm     40051eb6cad80e8188365f3f9edd39d1   IA-32: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852   IA-64: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-0.77-66.13.ia64.rpm     6fb2f1d6b0adca375262d60b26daa39a pam-devel-0.77-66.13.ia64.rpm     593c3eab0132c038560b39fa8b19abc8   x86_64: pam-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     0e0953ec3d666d576c1744a847de2c80 pam-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     5a7c43f47d4311f07445c3f6b23fbd2c pam-devel-0.77-66.13.i386.rpm     a760a30433c7c72323c0ea7b1b508852 pam-devel-0.77-66.13.x86_64.rpm     e5fb54c971f5eb92368750ac34f7da49   (The unlinked packages above are only available from the Red Hat Network) Bugs fixed (see bugzilla for more information) 168181 - CVE-2005-2977 unix_chkpwd helper doesn't verify requesting user if SELinux is enabled References http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2005-2977 These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat for security. Our key and details on how to verify the signature are available from: https://www.redhat.com/security/team/key/#package The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at http://www.redhat.com/security/team/contact/ Copyright © 2002-05 Red Hat, Inc. All rights reserved. Legal statement : Privacy statement : redhat.com Red Hat Network release 4.0.1 [***** End RHSA-2005:805-6 *****] _______________________________________________________________________________ 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. LAST 10 CIAC BULLETINS ISSUED (Previous bulletins available from CIAC) Q-025: HP OpenView Operations and OpenView Vantage Point Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Vulnerability Q-026: GDB Security Update Q-027: Netpbm Security Update Q-028: Xloadimage Security Update Q-029: Cisco 11500 Content Services Switch SSL Malformed Client Certificate Vulnerability Q-030: Multiple Problems in Ethereal Versions 0.7.7 to 0.10.12 Q-031: Eric Q-032: Sudo Q-033: Libgda2 Q-034: Red Hat Kernel Security Update