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CERT(sm) Vendor-Initiated Bulletin VB-96.02

February 1, 1996



Topic: Incorrect Permissions on Packing Subsystem

Source: Silicon Graphics, Inc.



To aid in the wide distribution of essential security information, the CERT

Coordination Center is forwarding the following information from Silicon

Graphics, Inc. (SGI), who urges you to act on this information as soon as

possible. SGI contact information is included in the forwarded text

below; please contact them if you have any questions or need further

information.





========================FORWARDED TEXT STARTS HERE============================



______________________________________________________________________________

                Silicon Graphics Inc. Security Advisory





         Number:         19960102-01-P

         Date:           January 29, 1996

______________________________________________________________________________



Silicon Graphics provides this information freely to the SGI community

for its consideration, interpretation and implementation.   Silicon Graphics

recommends that this information be acted upon as soon as possible.



Silicon Graphics will not be liable for any consequential damages

arising from the use of, or failure to use or use properly, any of the

instructions or information in this Security Advisory.

______________________________________________________________________________





Silicon Graphics has discovered a security vulnerability within the

"ATT Packaging Utility" (eoe2.sw.oampkg) subsystem available for the

IRIX operating system.  SGI has investigated this issue and recommends

the following steps for neutralizing the exposure.  It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

that these measures be implemented on ALL SGI systems running IRIX 5.2, 5.3,

6.0, 6.0.1, 6.1.   This issue has been corrected for future releases of

IRIX.





- --------------

- --- Impact ---

- --------------



The "ATT Packaging Utility" (eoe2.sw.oampkg) subsystem is not installed

as part of the standard IRIX operating system.  It is optionally installed

when manually selected to be installed when using the IRIX inst program.

Therefore, not all SGI systems will have this subsystem installed.



For those systems that the subsystem installed, both local and remote

users may be able to overwrite files and/or become root on a targeted SGI

system.





- ----------------

- --- Solution ---

- ----------------



To determine if the packaging system is installed on a particular system,

the following command can be used:



       % versions eoe2.sw.oampkg | grep oampkg

       I  eoe2.sw.oampkg       03/25/94  ATT Packaging Utility

       %



In the above case, the packaging system is installed and the steps

below should be performed. If no output is returned by the command,

the subsystem is not installed and no further action is required.



*IF* the packaging subsystem is installed, the following steps can

be used to neutralize the exposure by changing permissions on select

programs of the eoe2.sw.oampkg subsystem.



There is no patch for this issue.





       1) Become the root user on your system.



              % /bin/su

              Password:

              #





       2) Change the permissions on the following programs.



              # /sbin/chmod 755 /usr/pkg/bin/pkgadjust

              # /sbin/chmod 755 /usr/pkg/bin/abspath





       3) Return to the previous user state.



              # exit

              %





- -----------------------------------------

- --- SGI Security Information/Contacts ---

- -----------------------------------------



Past SGI Advisories and security patches can be obtained via

anonymous FTP from sgigate.sgi.com or its mirror, ftp.sgi.com.

These security patches and advisories are provided freely to

all interested parties.   For issues with the patches on the

FTP sites, email can be sent to cse-security-alert@csd.sgi.com.



For assistance obtaining or working with security patches, please

contact your SGI support provider.



If there are questions about this document, email can be sent to

cse-security-alert@csd.sgi.com.



For reporting *NEW* SGI security issues, email can be sent to

security-alert@sgi.com or contact your SGI support provider.  A

support contract is not required for submitting a security report.



=========================FORWARDED TEXT ENDS HERE=============================



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------------------------

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---

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