TUCoPS :: Unix :: General :: ca-9809.txt

CERT Advisory 98-09 Buffer Overflows in some implementations of IMAP servers

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CERT Advisory CA-98.09.imapd

   Original issue date: July 20, 1998
   Last revised: March 08, 1999   Updated IMAP Server information for
   ISOCOR.
   
   A complete revision history is at the end of this file.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Buffer Overflow in Some Implementations of IMAP Servers
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   The CERT Coordination Center has received reports regarding a
   vulnerability in some implementations of IMAP servers.
   
   The CERT/CC recommends that anyone running a vulnerable version of
   this software upgrade to the current vendor-recommended version. Until
   you can do so, we suggest disabling the vulnerable IMAP server.
   
   We will update this advisory as we receive additional information. We
   encourage you to check our web site regularly for updates to this
   advisory that may relate to your site.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
I. Description

   The CERT Coordination Center has received reports regarding a buffer
   overflow in some implementations of IMAP servers. The overflow is in
   library code from the University of Washington IMAP server that
   handles SASL server-level authentication. This vulnerability is
   different from the one discussed in CERT Advisory CA-97.09.imap_pop.
   Information about this vulnerability has been posted to various public
   mailing lists and newsgroups.
   
   All versions of the University of Washington IMAP server prior to the
   final (frozen, non-beta) version of imap-4.1 that support SASL
   server-level authentication are vulnerable. The vulnerability affects
   all University of Washington IMAP4rev1 servers prior to v10.234. Also,
   any v10.234 server that was distributed with Pine 4.0 or any
   imap-4.1.BETA is vulnerable.
   
   Additionally, the vulnerability is present in other IMAP servers that
   use library code from the University of Washington IMAP server to
   handle SASL server-level authentication.
   
   IMAP servers that share no code with the University of Washington
   server are not vulnerable.
   
   Some operating systems ship with a vulnerable version of this software
   installed and enabled by default. Please refer to the Vendor
   Information section below for more information about your vendor.
   
II. Impact

   Remote intruders can execute arbitrary commands under the privleges of
   the process running the vulnerable IMAP server. If the vulnerable IMAP
   server is running as root, remote intruders can gain root access.
   
III. Solution

    A.
       
Determine if your version of imapd is vulnerable
       To determine if a system is vulnerable, first telnet to port 143
       on that host. If it is running an IMAP server, the banner will
       show the version. For example:
       
% telnet host.your.domain.com 143
Trying 123.123.123.123...
Connected to host.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK host.your.domain.com IMAP4rev1 v10.190 server ready

       In the above example, the IMAP server is the University of
       Washington IMAP4rev1 v10.190. Since all University of Washington
       IMAP4rev1 servers prior to v10.234 are vulnerable, the server in
       the above example is vulnerable.
       Please consult the Vendor Information section below for
       information about other vulnerable IMAP servers.
    B.
       
Install the most recent version of imapd
       Obtain and install the most recent version, or patch for your IMAP
       server. Appendix A contains input from vendors who have provided
       information for this advisory.
    C.
       
Workaround
       If you are unable to upgrade to a version that is not vulnerable,
       we urge you to disable the IMAP server until you are able to
       address the problem.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Appendix A - Vendor Information

   Below is a list of the vendors who have provided information for this
   advisory. We will update this appendix as we receive additional
   information. If you do not see your vendor's name, the CERT/CC did not
   hear from that vendor. Please contact the vendor directly.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
IMAP Server Vendors

Cyrus

   This does not affect the Cyrus imapd. Cyrus imapd shares no code with
   the University of Washington imapd.

Esys Corporation

   We are not affected by the problem described in the advisory. We do not
   ship any University of Washington based software at this time. We have
   never shipped any of the IMAP 4.x software from the University of
   Washington.

ISOCOR

   No ISOCOR products are affected by this problem. The N-PLEX implementation
   shares no code with the University of Washington imapd.

Microsoft Corporation

   No Microsoft products are affected by this problem.

NEC Corporation

   The University of Washington imapd is shipped with our product
   "Mobilenet/IMAP" and so it is vulnerable.

Netscape

   Netscape Messaging Server 3.55 and before are susceptible to this
   vulnerability. However, it should be noted that Netscape Messaging
   Server (any version) does NOT run as root and therefore, the exposure
   is much more limited than the University of Washington example.
   Regardless, we have released a patch available at 
   http://help.netscape.com/products/server/messaging which
   addresses this vulnerability.

Sun Microsystems

   Please refer to Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin, "IMAP",
   Number: 00177, distributed October 2, 1998 for additional information
   relating to this vulnerability.

   Patches and Checksums are available to all Sun customers via World Wide
   Web at:
        http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/pubpatches/patches.html

   Sun security bulletins are available via World Wide Web at:
        http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/secbulletins

University of Washington

   A security problem has been detected with the University of Washington
   IMAP server that is included in the Pine 4.00 distribution. This will
   be fixed in the forthcoming Pine 4.01 maintenance release. Until then,
   if you are using the UW IMAP server, please update it with the
   following distribution:

   ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/mail/imap.tar.Z

   This vulnerability affects all IMAP4rev1 servers prior to
   v10.234. v10.234 may or may not be vulnerable; if it came from Pine
   4.00 or from any imap-4.1.BETA then it is vulnerable. IMAP2bis
   servers are immune. This problem is also fixed in the imap-4.2
   toolkit, which is tentatively expected to be released in
   conjunction with Pine 4.01. Any IMAP4rev1 server whose version
   starts with "v11" will be immune.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Operating System Vendors

Berkeley Software Design, Inc.

   The version of IMAP shipped with BSD/OS 2.1 and 3.0/3.1 is the older
   version which does not include the vulnerability.

   The version of IMAP which will be included in the upcoming 4.0 release
   has been updated to include the security fixes.

Caldera Linux

   Caldera: releasing patched imap-4.1; will release imap-4.2 as soon as
            it becomes available.

   URL:     ftp://ftp.caldera.com/pub/OpenLinux/updates/1.2/010

   6df741b4217f03bf773b54509a7d283a  imap-4.1.BETA-5.i386.rpm
   d3526121c68b611524fc72746204d752  imap-4.1.BETA-5.src.rpm

Compaq Computer Corporation

   (c) Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Compaq Computer Corporation.
   All rights reserved.

   SOURCE: Compaq Computer Corporation
           Compaq Services
           Software Security Response Team USA


   This reported problem is not present for the as shipped,
   Compaq's Digital ULTRIX or Compaq's Digital UNIX
   Operating Systems Software.


                             - Compaq Computer Corporation

Data General

   We are investigating. We will provide an update when our
   investigation is complete.

FreeBSD

   FreeBSD does not ship default with imap. However, there is a version
   of imapd from Washington University in the FreeBSD ports collections,
   known as imap-uw.

   If anyone is using the imap port, we suggest fetching the latest revision
   of imap and manually install it, or wait until the FreeBSD port is updated
   and reinstall imap-uw using the ports system.

   You can check the ports status at:
        http://www.freebsd.org/ports/mail.html

Fujitsu

   Our operating system, UXP/V, does not support imapd. Therefore, it is
   not vulnerable to the above vulnerability.

Hewlett-Packard Company

   HP does not ship the University of Washington IMAP server.

IBM Corporation

   The version of imapd shipped with AIX 4.2 and 4.3 is vulnerable.  We
   are currently working on the following fixes which will be available
   soon:

     AIX 3.2.x:  imapd not shipped (not vulnerable)
     AIX 4.1.x:  imapd not shipped (not vulnerable)
     AIX 4.2.x:  IX80446
     AIX 4.3.x:  IX80447

   To Order
   --------
     APARs may be ordered using Electronic Fix Distribution (via FixDist)
     or from the IBM Support Center.  For more information on FixDist,
     reference URL:

        http://aix.software.ibm.com/aix.us/swfixes/

     or send e-mail to aixserv@austin.ibm.com with a subject of "FixDist".

   IBM and AIX are registered trademarks of International Business Machines
   Corporation.

NetBSD

   NetBSD does not ship the UW imapd daemon in its standard or development
   operating system releases. Our optional package system also does not
   include it at this time.

OpenBSD

   OpenBSD has never shipped an imap daemon.

Red Hat Linux

   Serious security problems have been found in all versions of imap shipped
   with Red Hat Linux. If "rpm -q imap" shows that imap is installed on
   your system, please upgrade to these new imap releases immediately, or
   remove imap by running "rpm -e imap". Note that Red Hat's imap package
   also provides a POP server, so only remove it if you don't need to provide
   POP services.

   Thanks to everyone who helped find these problems, Olaf Kirch in particular.

   Red Hat 5.0 and 5.1
   -------------------

   i386:
   rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/updates/5.0/i386/imap-4.1.final-1.i386.rpm

   alpha:
   rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/updates/5.0/alpha/imap-4.1.final-1.alpha.rpm

   SPARC:
   rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/updates/5.0/sparc/imap-4.1.final-1.sparc.rpm

   Red Hat 4.2
   -----------

   i386:
   rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/updates/4.2/i386/imap-4.1.final-0.i386.rpm

   alpha:
   rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/updates/4.2/alpha/imap-4.1.final-0.alpha.rpm

   SPARC:
   rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/updates/4.2/sparc/imap-4.1.final-0.sparc.rpm


The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.

   The following SCO products are vulnerable:

   - SCO UnixWare 7

   SCO OpenServer 5.0, SCO CMW+ 3.0, SCO Open Desktop/Open Server 3.0,   and
   UnixWare 2.1 is not vulnerable as University of Washington imapd   is not
   included in these platforms.

   Binary versions of University of Washington imapd will be available
   shortly from the SCO ftp site:

   ftp://ftp.sco.com/SSE/sse014.ltr - cover letter
   ftp://ftp.sco.com/SSE/sse014.tar.Z - replacement binaries

   This fix is a binary for the following SCO operating systems:

   - SCO UnixWare 7

   For the latest security bulletins and patches for SCO products,
   please refer to http://www.sco.com/security/.

Silicon Graphics Inc.

   Please refer to Silicon Graphics Inc. Security Advisory, "University
   of Washington imapd daemon Vulnerability," Number: 19980802-01-I,
   distributed August 6, 1998 for additional information relating to this
   vulnerability.

   The primary SGI anonymous FTP site for security information and patches
   is sgigate.sgi.com (204.94.209.1).  Security information and patches
   are located under the directories ~ftp/security and ~ftp/patches,
   respectively. The Silicon Graphics Security Headquarters Web page is
   accessible at the URL http://www.sgi.com/Support/security/security.html.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   The CERT Coordination Center thanks Olaf Kirch of Caldera Linux for
   discovering and reporting the vulnerability. Additionally, we would
   like to thank Mark Crispin and Lori Stevens of the University of
   Washington for providing technical details and support in the
   development of the advisory.
   ______________________________________________________________________
   
   This document is available from:
   http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-98.09.imapd.html.
   ______________________________________________________________________
   
CERT/CC Contact Information

   Email: cert@cert.org
          Phone: +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)
          Fax: +1 412-268-6989
          Postal address:
          CERT Coordination Center
          Software Engineering Institute
          Carnegie Mellon University
          Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
          U.S.A.
          
   CERT personnel answer the hotline 08:00-20:00 EST(GMT-5) / EDT(GMT-4)
   Monday through Friday; they are on call for emergencies during other
   hours, on U.S. holidays, and on weekends.
   
Using encryption

   We strongly urge you to encrypt sensitive information sent by email.
   Our public PGP key is available from http://www.cert.org/CERT_PGP.key.
   If you prefer to use DES, please call the CERT hotline for more
   information.
   
Getting security information

   CERT publications and other security information are available from
   our web site http://www.cert.org/.
   
   To be added to our mailing list for advisories and bulletins, send
   email to cert-advisory-request@cert.org and include SUBSCRIBE
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   Copyright 1999 Carnegie Mellon University.
   Conditions for use, disclaimers, and sponsorship information can be
   found in http://www.cert.org/legal_stuff.html.
   
   * "CERT" and "CERT Coordination Center" are registered in the U.S.
   Patent and Trademark Office
   ______________________________________________________________________
   
   NO WARRANTY
   Any material furnished by Carnegie Mellon University and the Software
   Engineering Institute is furnished on an "as is" basis. Carnegie
   Mellon University makes no warranties of any kind, either expressed or
   implied as to any matter including, but not limited to, warranty of
   fitness for a particular purpose or merchantability, exclusivity or
   results obtained from use of the material. Carnegie Mellon University
   does not make any warranty of any kind with respect to freedom from
   patent, trademark, or copyright infringement.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Revision history
Mar. 08, 1999  Updated IMAP Server information for ISOCOR.
Nov. 16, 1998  Updated patch information for Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sept. 4, 1998  Added vendor information for Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Aug. 14, 1998  Added vendor information for Microsoft Corporation.

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