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The U.S. Department of Energy
Computer Incident Advisory Capability
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INFORMATION BULLETIN
SGI IRIX login LOCKOUT parameter Vulnerability
May 29, 1997 19:00 GMT Number H-64
______________________________________________________________________________
PROBLEM: A vulnerability has been identified in the login program when
the LOCKOUT parameter in /etc/default/login is set to a number
greater than zero.
PLATFORM: All SGI systems running IRIX 5.3 and 6.2. Other versions of
IRIX may also be vulnerable.
DAMAGE: This vulnerability may allow users to create arbitrary or
corrupt certain files on the system.
SOLUTION: Until patches are available, apply the workaround indicated
below.
______________________________________________________________________________
VULNERABILITY Exploit information involving this vulnerability has been made
ASSESSMENT: publicly available.
______________________________________________________________________________
[ Start AUSCERT Advisory ]
===========================================================================
AA-97.12 AUSCERT Advisory
SGI IRIX login LOCKOUT parameter Vulnerability
10 April 1997
Last Revised: --
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSCERT has received information that a vulnerability exists in the login
program when the LOCKOUT parameter in /etc/default/login is set to a number
greater than zero. This vulnerability is known to be present in IRIX 5.3
and 6.2. Other versions of IRIX may also be vulnerable.
This vulnerability may allow users to create arbitrary or corrupt certain
files on the system.
Exploit information involving this vulnerability has been made publicly
available.
At this stage, AUSCERT is unaware of any official vendor patches. AUSCERT
recommends that sites apply the workaround given in Section 3 until vendor
patches are made available.
This advisory will be updated as more information becomes available.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Description
Under the IRIX operating system, there is a file /etc/default/login
which contains default security logging configuration options. If
the parameter LOCKOUT is included in this file, and is set to a value
greater than zero, it causes accounts to be locked after a specified
number of consecutive unsuccessful login attempts by the same user.
When LOCKOUT is enabled users may be able to create arbitrary or
corrupt certain files on the system, due to an inadequate check in
the login verification process.
Sites can determine if this functionality is enabled by using the
command:
% grep '^LOCKOUT' /etc/default/login
LOCKOUT=3
If the number on the same line as LOCKOUT is greater than zero the
vulnerability may be exploited.
Information involving this vulnerability has been made publicly
available.
Silicon Graphics Inc. has informed AUSCERT that they are investigating
this vulnerability.
2. Impact
Users may create arbitrary or corrupt certain files on the system.
3. Workarounds/Solution
AUSCERT recommends that sites prevent the exploitation of this
vulnerability by immediately applying the workaround given in Section
3.1.
Currently there are no vendor patches available that address this
vulnerability. AUSCERT recommends that official vendor patches be
installed when they are made available.
3.1 Disable the LOCKOUT parameter
To prevent the exploitation of the vulnerability described in this
advisory, AUSCERT recommends that the functionality provided with the
LOCKOUT parameter be disabled.
The LOCKOUT parameter can be disabled by editing /etc/default/login
and commenting out the line containing the LOCKOUT parameter. The
comment character for /etc/default/login is "#".
Note that after applying this workaround, accounts will not be
automatically locked using the LOCKOUT parameter functionality.
[ End AUSCERT Advisory ]
______________________________________________________________________________
CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of AUSCERT, Silicon Graphics
Inc., and Alan J Rosenthal from The University of Toronto for the information
contained in this bulletin.
______________________________________________________________________________
CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer
security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). CIAC is located at the Lawrence Livermore
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