__________________________________________________________

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

                             INFORMATION BULLETIN

                      IBM AIX "sdrd" daemon Vulnerability

August 4, 1998 20:00 GMT                                          Number I-079
______________________________________________________________________________
PROBLEM:       A vulnerability exists in "sdrd" daemon that allows other nodes
               to make request, thereby allowing remote retrieval of any file
               off the system possible.
PLATFORM:      IBM SP2.
DAMAGE:        By exploiting this vulnerability, remote users may gain access
               to the system.
SOLUTION:      Apply the patch indicated below.
______________________________________________________________________________
VULNERABILITY  Currently, there are no reports of this vulnerability being
ASSESSMENT:    exploited. However, CIAC recommends that all systems running
               the "sdrd" daemon be patched immediately.
______________________________________________________________________________


        CIAC has been informed of a security vulnerability with "sdrd" daemon
running on the IBM SP2 platform.   This vulnerability may allow remote users
to retrieve files on the System Data Repository (SDR) machine, thereby
allowing remote users to gain access to the system.  

        The System Data Repository (SDR) is a SP subsystem that stores SP
configuration and some operational information.  The SDR information is stored
on a Control Workstation, but is made available through a client/server
interface to other network-connected nodes.  In most cases, SDR interaction is
performed using the SDR command-line interface.  However, the "sdrd" daemon
allows other nodes to make request without performing any authentication. 
This security flaw allows anyone to use the retrieve file command to get any
file on the SRD system.

        CIAC is unaware of any workarounds.  The only alternative is to download
and install the patch provided by IBM. 


IBM Patch Information

ftp://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/sdrd.tar.Z

Checksums for the binaries inside the tar file are:

MD5 (sdrd.pssp2_2.efix) = 8e7d77c1489b6cd49bd92a2ca8ac1658
MD5 (sdrd.pssp2_3.efix) = 363ee6a6696e945bdd8dab64b008f608
MD5 (sdrd.pssp2_4.ptf2.efix) = e190530906e6d0e2a128d4d10b0ee06e



______________________________________________________________________________

A special thanks goes to Chuck Athey and Jim Garlick of Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory for finding and verifying this vulnerability.
______________________________________________________________________________


CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer
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