TUCoPS :: SunOS/Solaris :: ciacf027.txt

Solaris incorrect permissions on /tmp

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             __________________________________________________________

                       The U.S. Department of Energy
                    Computer Incident Advisory Capability
                           ___  __ __    _     ___
                          /       |     /_\   /
                          \___  __|__  /   \  \___
             __________________________________________________________

                             INFORMATION BULLETIN

			 Incorrect Permissions on /tmp

August 17, 1995 1200 PDT                                            Number F-27
_______________________________________________________________________________


PROBLEM:        A vulnerability exists in Solaris 2.x systems that allows
		a race condition to be exploited to gain root access.
PLATFORM:	Sun Solaris 2.x (SunOS 5.x) and Solaris 2.4x86 
DAMAGE:         Users logged into a system may gain unauthorized root
		privileges.
SOLUTION:       Use the workaround contained in this bulletin to modify the
		sticky bit on the /tmp directory.
AVAILABILITY:	See the workaround that is contained in this bulletin
_______________________________________________________________________________

VULNERABILITY   Unprivileged users who are logged on to a system can use this 
ASSESSMENT:     vulnerability to gain unauthorized root privileges.  An 
		exploit program for this vulnerability has been published
		publically. CIAC advises that the workaround described below 
		be performed immediately.
_______________________________________________________________________________

	  CRITICAL Information on the Incorrect Permissions on /tmp

CIAC has received information from the Australian Computer Emergency Response
Team (AUSCERT) and from the bugtraq mailing list that a vulnerability has been
identified in Solaris 2.x systems that allows a race condition to be exploited
to gain root access.  The basic problem is that the sticky bit is sometimes
not set on the /tmp directory.  This improper setting causes users to be able
to access other user's files in the /tmp directory.

Sun Microsystems has confirmed this vulnerability and is currently testing 
patches for this vulnerability.  Patches from Sun Microsystems will be for
Solaris 2.3, 2.4 and 2.4x86.  Sun Microsystems expects to have patches
available within about a week.  This vulnerability has been fixed in the
upcoming release of Solaris.

Detailed Description
____________________

A race condition has been identified in at least one Solaris 2.x system
program which can be exploited to gain root access if a user has access to the
temporary files.  Access to these temporary files may be obtained if the
permissions on the /tmp and /var/tmp directories are set incorrectly.  The
permissions on the /tmp directory are often reset improperly by the system if
tmpfs (which is mounting swap as /tmp) is in use.

This vulnerability affects the Solaris 2.x (SunOS 5.x) systems.  A
vulnerability similar to this affected SunOS 4.1.x (Solaris 1.x) systems in
the past.  Therefore, CIAC recommends that these systems also be checked for
the correct permissions.  The remainder of this bulletin shows how to identify
if this vulnerability exists on your system and additionally identifies
commands to be used as a workaround to this vulnerability.  Commands shown are
for Solaris 2.x systems.  Similar commands and configurations exist for SunOS
4.1.x users.

To determine if you are running tmpfs, the following command can be used to
verify if the filesystem for /tmp is swap:

	$ /usr/sbin/df -k /tmp
	Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
	swap                  158728      28  158700     0%    /tmp

or look in the file /etc/vfstab for the configuration line:

#device         device          mount           FS      fsck    mount   mount
#to mount       to fsck         point           type    pass    at boot options
#
swap            -               /tmp            tmpfs   -       yes     -

If either of these two conditions exist, then you are running tmpfs and the
system may automatically reset the permissions bits of /tmp at the next
reboot.

To verify if your configuration is vulnerable, the following command may be
used:

$ ls -ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwt   5 root     root         306 Aug 16 11:12 /tmp
	 ^
	 ^ (Sticky bit is set -- system not currently vulnerable)

$ ls -ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwx   5 root     root         306 Aug 16 11:12 /tmp
	 ^
	 ^ (Sticky bit is not set -- system is vulnerable)

If the sticky bit (t) is not set, then the system is vulnerable.

WORKAROUNDS
___________

These workarounds have been verified with Sun Microsystems.  Sun Microsystems
expect a patch to be released in the near future.

1. Immediate Workaround

    The immediate workaround is to set the sticky bit on the /tmp directory
    using the following command as root:

	# /usr/bin/chmod 1777 /tmp

    Note that this command must be performed after each reboot if you are
    mounting swap as /tmp (using tmpfs).

    In addition, the ownership and group membership of the /tmp directory
    should be verified using ls -ld /tmp and if incorrect may be reset by
    issuing the following commands:

	# /usr/bin/chown root /tmp
	# /usr/bin/chgrp root /tmp

2. System Reboot workaround

    It is possible to perform these commands automatically at reboot by
    creating the following script as /etc/init.d/tmpfsfix:

 -------------------------8<--- cut here ---8<--------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

if [ -d /tmp ]
then
   /usr/bin/chmod 1777 /tmp
   /usr/bin/chgrp root /tmp
   /usr/bin/chown root /tmp
fi
#
# end of script tmpfsfix
 -------------------------8<--- cut here ---8<--------------------------------


    A symbolic link should be then be created called /etc/rc3.d/S79tmpfix
    which points to /etc/init.d/tmpfsfix by issuing the following command
    as root:

	# /usr/bin/ln -s /etc/init.d/tmpfsfix /etc/rc3.d/S79tmpfix

3. /var/tmp permissions

    The /var/tmp directory should be similarly checked and corrected.  Note
    that this directory is not usually mounted as tmpfs, and therefore is
    not subject to automatic resetting of its permission bits on reboot.

	% ls -ld /var/tmp
	drwxrwxrwt  2 root          512 Aug 15 11:35 /var/tmp

_______________________________________________________________________________

CIAC wishes to thank the AUSCERT team and Mark Graff of Sun Microsystems for 
providing 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. CIAC is located at 
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. CIAC is 
also a founding member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security 
Teams, a global organization established to foster cooperation and 
coordination among computer security teams worldwide. 

CIAC services are available to DOE and DOE contractors, and CIAC can be 
contacted at:
    Voice:    510-422-8193
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For emergencies and off-hour assistance, DOE and DOE contractor sites may 
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CIAC BULLETINS ISSUED IN FY95 (Previous bulletins available from CIAC)
(F-01)	SGI IRIX serial_ports Vulnerability
(F-02)	Summary of HP Security Bulletins
(F-03)	Restricted Distribution
(F-04)	Security Vulnerabilities in DECnet/OSI for OpenVMS
(F-05)	SCO Unix at, login, prwarn, sadc, and pt_chmod 
          Patches Available
(F-06)	Novell UnixWare sadc, urestore, and suid_exec Vulnerabilities
(F-07)	New and Revised HP Bulletins
(F-08)	Internet Address Spoofing and Hijacked Session Attacks
(F-09)	Unix /bin/mail Vulnerabilities
(F-10)	HP-UX Remote Watch
(F-11)	Unix NCSA httpd Vulnerability
(F-12)	Kerberos Telnet Encryption Vulnerability
(F-13)	Unix sendmail vulnerabilities
(F-14)	HP-UX Malicious Code Sequences
(F-15)	HP-UX "at" and "cron" vulnerabilities
(F-16)	SGI IRIX Desktop Permissions Tool Vulnerability
(F-17)	Limited Distribution
(F-18)	MPE/iX Vulnerabilities
(F-19)	Protecting HP-UX Systems Against SATAN
(F-20)	Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks (SATAN)
(F-21)  Protecting SUN OS Systems Against SATAN
(F-22)  SATAN Password Disclosure
(F-23)	Protecting IBM AIX Systems Against SATAN
(F-24)  Protecting SGI IRIX Systems Against SATAN
(F-25)  Cisco IOS Router Software Vulnerability
(F-26)  OSF/DCE Security Hole

CIAC NOTES ISSUED IN FY1995 (Previous Notes available from CIAC)
04c	December 8, 1994
05d	January 11, 1995
06	March 22, 1995
07	March 29, 1995
08	April 4, 1995
09	April 24, 1995
10a	June 16, 1995
11	July, 31, 1995

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