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                        SuSE Security Announcement

        Package:  INN 2.0 and higher
        Date:     Wed May 19 15:20:33 CEST 1999
        Affected: Unix operating systems using INN >= 2.0

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Some security holes were discovered in the package mentioned above.
Please update as soon as possible or disable the service if you are using
this software on your SuSE Linux installation(s).

Other Linux distributions or operating systems might be affected as
well, please contact your vendor for information about this issue.

Please note, that that we provide this information on as "as-is" basis only.
There is no warranty whatsoever and no liability for any direct, indirect or
incidental damage arising from this information or the installation of
the update package.

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1. Problem Description

    The innd wrapper inndstart could be tricked to execute arbitrary
    code by editing the environment (INNCONF), by modifing the inn.conf
    file or by overflowing a buffer.

2. Impact

    As long as /usr/lib/news/bin/inndstart is SUID root a attacker
    could gain local root access to your system.

3. Solution

    Remove the SUID bit of inndstart by executing
      /bin/chmod 700 /usr/lib/news/bin/inndstart

    Disallow other users than news to access /usr/lib/news
      /bin/chmod go-rwx /usr/lib/news

    Install a patch (update the package) as soon as the bug is fixed!

______________________________________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________________________________

If you want to report *NEW* security bugs in the SuSE Linux Distribution
please send an email to security@suse.de or call our support line.
You may use pgp with the public key below to ensure confidentiality.
______________________________________________________________________________

  This information is provided freely to everyone interested and may
  be redistributed provided that it is not altered in any way.

Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  2048/3D25D3D9 1999/03/06 SuSE Security Team