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April 27, 2000 20:00 GMT
PROBLEM: A backdoor password exists in Piranha that may allow remote
attackers to execute commands on the server. Piranha could be
unknowingly installed, for example, when the Red Hat user
selects the "install all" option. The Red Hat user need not
actually use Piranha for the vulnerability to be exploited.
PLATFORM: The vulnerability is present if version 0.4.12 of piranha-gui
is installed. The current distribution of Red Hat Linux 6.2 is
vulnerable. Earlier versions of the Red Hat distribution do not
contain this vulnerability.
DAMAGE: An attacker could compromise the web server as well as deface
and destroy the web site.
SOLUTION: Install the updated packages to remove the backdoor, and set
the server administrator password.
VULNERABILITY The risk is HIGH. The server administrator account name and
ASSESSMENT: password have appeared in public forums.
[ Start Red Hat Advisory ]
Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory
Synopsis: Piranha web GUI exposure
Advisory ID: RHSA-2000:014-16
Issue date: 2000-04-18
Updated on: 2000-04-26
Product: Red Hat Linux
Keywords: piranha
Cross references: php
1. Topic:
The GUI portion of Piranha may allow any remote attacker to execute
commands on the server. This may allow a remote attacker to launch
additional exploits against a web site from inside the web server.
This is an updated release that disables Piranha's web GUI interface
unless the site administrator enables it explicitly.
2. Relevant releases/architectures:
Red Hat Linux 6.2 - i386 alpha sparc
3. Problem description:
When Piranha is installed, it generates a 'secure' web interface ID
using the HTML .htaccess method. The information for the account is
placed in /home/httpd/html/piranha/secure/passwords which was supposed
to be released with a blank password. Unfortunately, the password that
is actually on the CD is 'Q'.
The original intent was that, when the administrator installed Piranha
rpms onto their box, that they would change the default blank password
to a password of their own choosing.
This is not a hidden account. Its only use is to protect the web pages
from unauthorized access.
The security problem arises from the
http://localhost/piranha/secure/passwd.php3 file. It is possible to
execute commands by entering 'blah;some-command' into the password
fields. Everything after the semicolon is executed with the same
privilege as the webserver.
Because of this, it is possible to compromise the webserver or do
serious damage to files on the site that are owned by the user
'nobody' or to export a shell using xterm.
Updated piranha packages released as version 0.14.3-1 fixed the
security vulnerability while still require for the default behavior
of requiring the web administrator to reset the password before making
the web site public.
Because of the security concerns from the community and in order to
protect innocent administrators that might not be aware of the need to
change the password for Piranha's interface before going live on the
Internet, Red Hat is releasing a new set of packages that disable the
piranha web interface by default. The site administrator will have to
enable the service from the command line by resetting the password as
detailed on the main page of the piranha utility.
The new packages that include these changes are known as version
piranha-0.4.14-1.
Users of Red Hat Linux 6.2 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the
new packages if they are actively using piranha on their system
(upgrade instructions follow) or to remove the piranha-gui package
altogether by issuing the following command:
rpm -e piranha-gui
4. Solution:
For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Fvh [filename]
where filename is the name of the RPM.
When you install the update for the piranha-gui, please take a
moment to review the instructions presented on the following URL
(http://localhost/piranha). This should guide you through the process
of installing a password for use with the GUI.
5. Bug IDs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):
N/A
6. Obsoleted by:
N/A
7. Conflicts with:
N/A
8. RPMs required:
Red Hat Linux 6.2:
intel:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/i386/piranha-0.4.14-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/i386/piranha-docs-0.4.14-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/i386/piranha-gui-0.4.14-1.i386.rpm
alpha:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/alpha/piranha-0.4.14-1.alpha.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/alpha/piranha-docs-0.4.14-1.alpha.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/alpha/piranha-gui-0.4.14-1.alpha.rpm
sparc:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/sparc/piranha-0.4.14-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/sparc/piranha-docs-0.4.14-1.sparc.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/sparc/piranha-gui-0.4.14-1.sparc.rpm
sources:
ftp://updates.redhat.com/6.2/SRPMS/piranha-0.4.14-1.src.rpm
9. Verification:
MD5 sum Package Name
7c9cad243857f3e90cb73457619ad3a0 6.2/SRPMS/piranha-0.4.14-1.src.rpm
179e502f88f149fe3bfb285af851a6d3 6.2/alpha/piranha-0.4.14-1.alpha.rpm
881622bc6403c2af38834c0deaf05d44
6.2/alpha/piranha-docs-0.4.14-1.alpha.rpm
7ffc63ec6f236afc0b19298ec29e6774
6.2/alpha/piranha-gui-0.4.14-1.alpha.rpm
1e04357c0ebb004185b834152667c644 6.2/i386/piranha-0.4.14-1.i386.rpm
5b6649f14979e1b2fbdb763d88e9a3ac
6.2/i386/piranha-docs-0.4.14-1.i386.rpm
1a49816f280dc7a9b83ba9bab42a247f
6.2/i386/piranha-gui-0.4.14-1.i386.rpm
4153b861f030a17745463c1749732b58
6.2/sparc/piranha-0.4.14-1.sparc.rpm
dc964993d9a3b6c967e5c4455bc24221
6.2/sparc/piranha-docs-0.4.14-1.sparc.rpm
97071e07e2f34fecf80ba48f61e70ba6
6.2/sparc/piranha-gui-0.4.14-1.sparc.rpm
These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security. Our key
is available at: http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html
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
10. References:
This vulnerability was discovered and researched by Allen Wilson and
Dan Ingevaldson of Internet Security Systems. Red Hat would like to
thank ISS for the assistance in getting this problem fixed quickly.
[ End Red Hat Advisory ]
CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Red Hat for the information contained in this bulletin.
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ciac.llnl.gov
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