---------------------------------------------------------------------
                   Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory

Synopsis:          Updated mailx and perl packages are now available.
Advisory ID:       RHSA-2000:048-06
Issue date:        2000-08-07
Updated on:        2000-08-09
Product:           Red Hat Linux
Keywords:          perl suidperl mailx rpm
Cross references:  RHSA-2000:051
---------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Topic:

Updated perl and mailx package are now available which fix a potential
exploit made possible by incorrect assumptions made in suidperl.

This advisory contains additional instructions for installing the necessary
updates.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Linux 5.0 - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 5.1 - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 5.2 - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 6.0 - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 6.1 - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 6.2 - i386, alpha, sparc
Red Hat Linux 6.2E - i386, alpha, sparc

3. Problem description:

Under certain conditions, suidperl will attempt to send mail to the local
superuser account using /bin/mail.  A properly formatted exploit script can
use this facility, along with mailx's tendency to inherit settings from the
environment, to gain local root access.

This update changes suidperl's behavior to use syslog instead of mail, and
restricts the list of variables /bin/mail will read from the environment.

4. Solution:

For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:

rpm -Fvh [filename]

where filename is the name of the RPM.

In order to install some of these packages, you may need to have a newer
version of RPM installed.  Information about obtaining the new version of
RPM is included in RHSA-2000:051.

5. Bug IDs fixed  (  for more info):

15625 - Root exploit alread posted on bugtraq
15630 - Root exploit in sperl
15641 - suidperl has a major problem


6. RPMs required:

Red Hat Linux 5.0:

Red Hat Linux 5.2:

sparc: 
  
 

alpha: 
  
 

i386: 
  
 

sources: 
  
 

Red Hat Linux 6.2:

sparc: 
  
 

i386: 
  
 

alpha: 
  
 

sources: 
  
 

7. Verification:

MD5 sum                           Package Name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
c514911db4ce13fc32af5b59233d5dc9  5.2/SRPMS/mailx-8.1.1-16.src.rpm
7440313c13c65142c75e35d32b5807c3  5.2/SRPMS/perl-5.004m7-2.src.rpm
430fca595dd42648239b8ad475032c9c  5.2/alpha/mailx-8.1.1-16.alpha.rpm
876b94f7d4fd4d92142f44de51045591  5.2/alpha/perl-5.004m7-2.alpha.rpm
fd9d44b8aeadc36bd871dd8e2d6211c4  5.2/i386/mailx-8.1.1-16.i386.rpm
0a1f47cacb891c03b351211d4fe825ed  5.2/i386/perl-5.004m7-2.i386.rpm
376f28398c607b4af12d06babbd7e098  5.2/sparc/mailx-8.1.1-16.sparc.rpm
24e61c42e5a22dbbc929264a1ddc3869  5.2/sparc/perl-5.004m7-2.sparc.rpm
30d2f82abfba4ac2c770b66c591d528f  6.2/SRPMS/mailx-8.1.1-16.src.rpm
5cfe855e78b1ed7672e4daa738093f2c  6.2/SRPMS/perl-5.00503-11.src.rpm
25497e13b1d30f3dcff365602f78208a  6.2/alpha/mailx-8.1.1-16.alpha.rpm
452714b1ddfd479cb683b21ca54d27a3  6.2/alpha/perl-5.00503-11.alpha.rpm
c121c2076bae78f42afcf9f0357549b9  6.2/i386/mailx-8.1.1-16.i386.rpm
ff573609cbe0de0fe72838b0139992da  6.2/i386/perl-5.00503-11.i386.rpm
6464e30268ba05a2ca938b38805a9256  6.2/sparc/mailx-8.1.1-16.sparc.rpm
fa63980aed3bdd2c9c14dcca6745c56c  6.2/sparc/perl-5.00503-11.sparc.rpm

These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security.  Our key
is available at:
      

You can verify each package with the following command:
    rpm --checksig  

If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or
tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:
    rpm --checksig --nogpg 

8. References:
 
  
Login


Copyright(c) 2000 Red Hat, Inc.