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Linux Advisory Watch: April 8th 2005
Source: LinuxSecurity.com Contributors - Posted by Benjamin D. Thomas
This week, advisories were released for MySQL, samba, ImageMagick, krb5, remstats,
wu-ftpd, sharutils, util-linux, words, gaim, e2fsprogs, subversion, ipsec-tools,
libexif, htdig, grip, gtk2, tetex, curl, gdk-pixbuf, and XFree86. The distributors
include Conectiva, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Mandrake, Red Hat, and SuSE.
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Measuring Security IT Success
In a time where budgets are constrained and Internet threats are
on the rise, it is important for organizations to invest in network
security applications that will not only provide them with powerful
functionality but also a rapid return on investment.
In most organizations IT success is generally calculated through
effectiveness, resource usage and, most importantly, how quickly
the investment can be returned. To correctly quantify the ROI of
information technology, organizations usually measure cost savings
and increased profits since the initial implementation.
Additionally, ROI can also be affected based on the overall
impact the investment has on employee productivity and overall
work environment of the company.
With regards to security IT purchases, however, it is much more
difficult to calculate an accurate ROI. When it comes to securing
a corporate network, it is nearly impossible to assign a dollar
amount to the level of security necessary to keep organizations
safe from increasing Internet threats. Making incorrect decisions
in this area could lead to an exhaustion of resources or an
oversight in specific areas needing protection, potentially
resulting in debilitating and costly security breaches.
To avoid such situations, it is essential that all organizations
invest in a solid infrastructure with flexibility and room for
future expansion. In addition, leveraging open source solutions
consistently deliver greater ROI, substantially increase
security protection, and deliver better flexibility. Such an
investment will fundamentally change how information is
managed and present results in a more quantifiable metric
when presenting to them management.
Getting
to Know Linux Security: File Permissions - Welcome to the first
tutorial in the 'Getting to Know Linux Security' series. The topic explored
is Linux file permissions. It offers an easy to follow explanation of how
to read permissions, and how to set them using chmod. This guide is intended
for users new to Linux security, therefore very simple. If the feedback is
good, I'll consider creating more complex guides for advanced users. Please
let us know what you think and how these can be improved.
The
Tao of Network Security Monitoring: Beyond Intrusion Detection
- To be honest, this was one of the best books that I've read on network security.
Others books often dive so deeply into technical discussions, they fail to
provide any relevance to network engineers/administrators working in a corporate
environment. Budgets, deadlines, and flexibility are issues that we must all
address. The Tao of Network Security Monitoring is presented in such a way
that all of these are still relevant.
Encrypting
Shell Scripts - Do you have scripts that contain sensitive information
like passwords and you pretty much depend on file permissions to keep it secure?
If so, then that type of security is good provided you keep your system secure
and some user doesn't have a "ps -ef" loop running in an attempt to capture
that sensitive info (though some applications mask passwords in "ps" output).
Take advantage of our Linux Security discussion
list! This mailing list is for general security-related questions and comments.
To subscribe send an e-mail to security-discuss-request@linuxsecurity.com
with "subscribe" as the subject.
Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com
weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers
with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headline.
A bug was discovered in the way that the racoon daemon handled
incoming ISAKMP requests. It is possible that an attacker could crash
the racoon daemon by sending a specially crafted ISAKMP packet. The updated
packages have been patched to correct these issues.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118767
Mandrake: Updated libexif packages fix
31st, March, 2005
A buffer overflow was discovered in the way libexif parses EXIF
tags. An attacker could exploit this by creating a special EXIF image
file which could cause image viewers linked against libexif to crash.
The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118768
A format string vulnerability was discovered in ImageMagick,
in the way it handles filenames. An attacker could execute arbitrary code
on a victim's machine provided they could trick them into opening a file
with a special name (CAN-2005-0397). As well, Andrei Nigmatulin discovered
a heap-based buffer overflow in ImageMagick's image handler. An attacker
could create a special PhotoShop Document (PSD) image file in such a way
that it would cause ImageMagick to execute arbitray code when processing
the image (CAN-2005-0005). Other vulnerabilities were discovered in ImageMagick
versions prior to 6.0: A bug in the way that ImageMagick handles TIFF
tags was discovered.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118779
Mandrake: Updated grip packages fix
1st, April, 2005
A buffer overflow bug was found by Dean Brettle in the way that
grip handles data returned by CDDB servers. If a user connected to a malicious
CDDB server, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on the user's machine.
The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118780
Red
Hat
RedHat: Important: gtk2 security update
1st, April, 2005
Updated gtk2 packages that fix a double free vulnerability are
now available. This update has been rated as having important security
impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118773
RedHat: Moderate: tetex security update
1st, April, 2005
Updated tetex packages that fix several integer overflows are
now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security
impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118774
Updated gdk-pixbuf packages that fix a double free vulnerability
are now available. This update has been rated as having important security
impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118805
RedHat: Important: mysql-server security
update
5th, April, 2005
Updated mysql-server packages that fix several vulnerabilities
are now available. This update has been rated as having important security
impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118806
RedHat: Moderate: XFree86 security update
6th, April, 2005
Updated XFree86 packages that fix a libXpm integer overflow
flaw and a number of bugs are now available. This update has been rated
as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118814
RedHat: Moderate: kdelibs security update
6th, April, 2005
Updated kdelibs packages that fix a local denial of service
issue are now available. This update has been rated as having moderate
security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118815
This Linux kernel security update fixes a problem within the
Bluetooth kernel stack which can be used by a local attacker to gain root
access or crash the machine.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/118795
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