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__________________________________________________________
The U.S. Department of Energy
Computer Incident Advisory Capability
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__________________________________________________________
INFORMATION BULLETIN
DIGITAL Security Vulnerabilities (DoP, delta-time)
March 11, 1997 19:00 GMT Number H-40
______________________________________________________________________________
PROBLEM: Two vulnerabilities have been identified by DIGITAL: 1)
Division of Privilege (DoP), 2) delta-time limit.
PLATFORM: 1) DIGITAL UNIX v4.0, v4.0A and v4.0B. 2) DIGITAL OpenVMS
system.
DAMAGE: 1) this vulnerability may allow local users to gain root
privileges. 2) may cause a serious error on or around
19-MAY-1997.
SOLUTION: Install the proper patches and/or use the workarounds provided
below.
______________________________________________________________________________
VULNERABILITY Exploit details involving these vulnerabilities have been made
ASSESSMENT: publicly available.
______________________________________________________________________________
[ Start DIGITAL Advisories ]
1. Division of Privilege (DoP)
______________________________________________________________________________
PRODUCT: DIGITAL UNIX[TM] V4.0, V4.0A, V4.0B MARCH 6, 1997
TITLE: Division of Privilege (DoP) - Potential Security Vulnerability
SOURCE: Digital Equipment Corporation
Software Security Response Team/Colorado Springs USA
"Digital is broadly distributing this Security Advisory in order to
bring to the attention of users of Digital's products the important
security information contained in this Advisory. Digital recommends
that all users determine the applicability of this information to
their individual situations and take appropriate action.
Digital does not warrant that this information is necessarily
accurate or complete for all user situations and, consequently,
Digital will not be responsible for any damages resulting from
user's use or disregard of the information provided in this
Advisory."
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IMPACT:
Digital has discovered a potential vulnerability with the
Division of Privilege (DoP), "/usr/sbin/dop" for DIGITAL UNIX
V4.0, V4.0A and V4.0B, where under certain circumstances,
an unauthorized user may gain unauthorized privileges. Digital
strongly recommends that the workaround be implemented
immediately for any version affected, and that the
appropriate patch kit be installed as soon as it becomes
available.
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RESOLUTION:
This potential security issue has been resolved and an
official fix for this problem will be made available
beginning the 13th of March 1997. As the patches become
available per affected version, Digital will provide them
through:
o the World Wide Web at the following FTP address:
ftp://ftp.service.digital.com/public/
the sub directory Digital_UNIX, key identifier SSRT0435U
Note: [1]The patch kits mentioned above will be replaced in
the near future through normal patch release
procedures.
[2]The appropriate patch kit must be reinstalled
following any upgrade beginning with V4.0
up to and including V4.0b.
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TEMPORARY WORKAROUND:
Prior to receiving the official patch for this fix, a
temporary workaround for this problem is to clear the
setuid bit from the /usr/sbin/dop command as follows:
# chmod 0 /usr/sbin/dop
This temporary workaround will resolve the security issue,
but will also defeat DoP's purpose. See "ADDITIONAL
COMMENTS" below for the purpose of DoP, the effect of
using this temporary workaround, and what to do as a
solution while using this temporary workaround.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
The DoP command is used to provide non-root users with the
ability to enter the root password to access the graphical
system management applications via the CDE application
manager or the Host Manager. When a non-root user
attempts to execute a system management application
through one of these applications, the user will be
prompted with a password dialog. If the user enters the
correct root password, they will gain root privilege while
running the given application.
If the setuid bit is cleared from /usr/sbin/dop, then
users will not be able to access the system management
applications from either the CDE application manager or
the Host Manager.
The following are workarounds to allow users to run the
graphical system management applications with DoP
disabled:
[1] Log into a CDE session as root and access the system
management applications.
[2] If logged in as a normal user, become root in your
preferred X-based terminal emulator (xterm, dxterm, dtterm,
etc.) and run the graphical system management application
via the command line.
If you need further information, please contact your
normal DIGITAL support channel.
DIGITAL appreciates your cooperation and patience. We
regret any inconvenience applying this information may cause.
__________________________________________________________________
Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation, 1995 All
Rights Reserved.
Unpublished Rights Reserved Under The Copyright Laws Of
The United States.
______________________________________________________________________________
2. delta-time limit
______________________________________________________________________________
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION
"Digital is broadly distributing this Security Advisory
in order to bring to the attention of users of Digital's
products the important security information contained in
this Advisory. Digital recommends that all users
determine the applicability of this information to their
individual situations and take appropriate action.
Digital does not warrant that this information is
necessarily accurate or complete for all user situations
and, consequently, Digital will not be responsible for
any damages resulting from user's use or disregard of the
information provided in this Advisory."
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION
OpenVMS[TM] Delta-Time Limit Notification Cover Letter
AV-R4Y1A-TE
February 1997
Dear OpenVMS Customer,
The OpenVMS operating system has a documented delta-time
limit that may cause a serious error in some applications
and OpenVMS components beginning on or around 19-MAY-1997.
DIGITAL has provided ECOs (Engineering Change Orders) that
remove the delta-time limit.
Applications and OpenVMS components most likely to
experience errors are those that pass delta-time arguments
with values exceeding 9999 days on system-supplied date
routines. The most likely date that these errors will
occur is 19-MAY-1997:00:00, which is 10,000 days after the
common UNIX time origin of 1-JAN-1970.
DIGITAL strongly recommends that all customers running the
affected versions of OpenVMS install the appropriate ECO,
as follows:
For OpenVMS Alpha Version 6.1 through Version 7.0: ALPLIBR05_070
For OpenVMS VAX Version 5.5 through Version 7.0: VAXLIBR05_070
Systems running OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.1 and OpenVMS VAX
Version 7.1 are not affected and do not need to install
the ECO.
The following OpenVMS components and software products are
known to be affected by the delta-time limit. The ECOs
correct the problems observed in these products.
________________________________________________________________
Product________________________________OpenVMS_Version__________
OpenVMS SECURITY Server OpenVMS Alpha V7.0 only
DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS OpenVMS Alpha V7.0 only
Distributed Computing Environment OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 only
(DCE) for OpenVMS
OpenVMS DECthreads OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS
VAX V5.5 through V7.0
(OSU) DECthreads HTTP Server (free- OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS
ware provided with the OpenVMS VAX V5.5 through V7.0
Internet_Product_Suite)_________________________________________
Other software products running on OpenVMS might also
experience errors stemming from this delta-time limit.
Contact the appropriate software vendor for more
information.
Impact on Application Developers
Application developers and their customers must install
the appropriate ECO.
If an application developer uses OpenVMS shareable images,
there is no required code change and relinking is not
necessary; installing the ECO on the customer system
corrects the problem.
If an application developer does not use OpenVMS shareable
images (that is, links using STARLET) and the application
is subject to the 10,000 day restriction, no code change
is required. However, the developer must relink the
application after installing the ECO and might need to
redistribute the software. The application developer's
customers must also install the ECO on their systems.
If your application calls the following OpenVMS RTL
Library (LIB$) routines, you may encounter errors due to
the 10,000 day delta-time limit.
LIB$CVT_TO_INTERNAL_TIME LIB$SUB_TIMES
LIB$CVT_FROM_INTERNAL_TIME LIB$MULT_DELTA_TIME
LIB$CVTF_TO_INTERNAL_TIME LIB$MULTF_DELTA_TIME
LIB$CVTF_FROM_INTERNAL_TIME LIB$CONVERT_DATE_STRING
LIB$CVT_VECTIM LIB$ADD_TIMES
Applications that are written in DEC C and contain
portable code that calls only ANSI time functions are not
impacted.
Distribution Channels
DIGITAL is distributing the ECOs only through the
following channels. Customers should obtain the ECOs from:
o DIGITAL Electronic Service Delivery Tools (such as DSNlink,
Web Information and Support Service (WIS), and DIGITAL Dial-
In Access (DIA))
o the World Wide Web at:
http://www.service.digital.com/html/patch_main.html
o the following FTP address:
ftp://ftp.service.digital.com/public/vms/
If you need further information, please contact your
normal DIGITAL support channel.
DIGITAL appreciates your cooperation and patience. We
regret any inconvenience applying this update may cause.
(c)Digital Equipment Corporation. 1997. All rights reserved.
___________________
[TM] The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation:
OpenVMS, VAX, VMS, and the DIGITAL logo.
[ End DIGITAL Advisories ]
______________________________________________________________________________
CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of DIGITAL Equipment Corporation
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
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, DOE contractors, and the NIH. CIAC
can be contacted at:
Voice: +1 510-422-8193
FAX: +1 510-423-8002
STU-III: +1 510-423-2604
E-mail: ciac@llnl.gov
For emergencies and off-hour assistance, DOE, DOE contractor sites,
and the NIH may contact CIAC 24-hours a day. During off hours (5PM -
8AM PST), call the CIAC voice number 510-422-8193 and leave a message,
or call 800-759-7243 (800-SKY-PAGE) to send a Sky Page. CIAC has two
Sky Page PIN numbers, the primary PIN number, 8550070, is for the CIAC
duty person, and the secondary PIN number, 8550074 is for the CIAC
Project Leader.
Previous CIAC notices, anti-virus software, and other information are
available from the CIAC Computer Security Archive.
World Wide Web: http://ciac.llnl.gov/
Anonymous FTP: ciac.llnl.gov (128.115.19.53)
Modem access: +1 (510) 423-4753 (28.8K baud)
+1 (510) 423-3331 (28.8K baud)
CIAC has several self-subscribing mailing lists for electronic
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subscribe list-name LastName, FirstName PhoneNumber
e.g., subscribe ciac-notes OHara, Scarlett W. 404-555-1212 x36
You will receive an acknowledgment containing address, initial PIN,
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PLEASE NOTE: Many users outside of the DOE, ESnet, and NIH computing
communities receive CIAC bulletins. If you are not part of these
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This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an
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