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MIT Kerberos V5 ASN.1 decoder fails to perform bounds checking on data element length fields

Vulnerability Note VU#587579

Original Release Date: 2003-01-31 | Last Revised: 2003-04-04

Overview

The MIT Kerberos V5 implementation contains an ASN.1 decoding flaw that may allow remote attackers to crash affected Kerberos applications.

Description

Kerberos V5 protocol messages are defined using Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), a formal language that allows protocol specifications to be easily encoded for network transmission. For example, each data element in a given protocol message is encoded with additional information that indicates the type and length of the supplied data. This standardized format allows the recipient of the message to interpret the data elements and handle them appropriately.

The ASN.1 decoder included with MIT Kerberos V5 fails to perform bounds checking on the length values supplied with each data element. In some cases, an incoming message can contain a large unsigned data element length value that is misinterpreted as a negative signed value. When an affected Key Distribution Center (KDC) or other Kerberos application attempts to allocate negative or unreasonably large amounts of storage, an error condition will occur that may cause the application to crash.

Impact

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to crash affected applications, resulting in a denial of service condition.

Solution

This vulnerability was addressed in MIT Kerberos V5 1.2.5, released on April 30, 2002. MIT krb5 Security Advisory 2003-001 provides additional information from MIT and is available at:

http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/advisories/MITKRB5-SA-2003-001-multiple.txt

For information regarding other vendors who may be affected, please see the vendor section of this document.

Vendor Information

587579
 

MIT Kerberos Development Team Affected

Notified:  April 04, 2002 Updated: January 30, 2003

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

MIT recommends updating to release 1.2.5 or later, preferably to the latest release. Patches specifically to fix these problems are not available at this time.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The MIT Kerberos Development Team has published MIT krb5 Security Advisory 2003-001 to address this vulnerability. For more information, please see:

MandrakeSoft Affected

Notified:  April 03, 2003 Updated: April 04, 2003

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

MandrakeSoft has published Security Advisory MDKSA-2003:043-1 to address this vulnerability. For more information, please see:

Red Hat Inc. Affected

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: March 27, 2003

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ship with a Kerberos package vulnerable to these issues. Updated Kerberos packages are available along with our advisory at the URLs below. Users of the Red Hat Network can update their systems using the 'up2date' tool.

Red Hat Linux:


Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
    Will be available shortly

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Hewlett-Packard Company Not Affected

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 31, 2003

Status

Not Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC does not believe that HP products are affected by this vulnerability.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Microsoft Corporation Not Affected

Notified:  April 04, 2002 Updated: January 31, 2003

Status

Not Affected

Vendor Statement

This report is specific to implementations that are using the MIT Kerberos5 code distribution. Microsoft does not use the MIT code (and specifically not the asn module described in your report). And do we believe Windows does not have this vulnerability.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Apple Computer Inc. Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

BSDI Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Cisco Systems Inc. Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Conectiva Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Cray Inc. Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 31, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Debian Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

IBM Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 31, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

KTH Kerberos Unknown

Notified:  April 04, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

NetBSD Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

OpenBSD Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Sun Microsystems Inc. Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

The SCO Group Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Wind River Systems Inc. Unknown

Notified:  April 08, 2002 Updated: January 29, 2003

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

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References

Acknowledgements

The reporter of this vulnerability wishes to remain anonymous.

This document was written by Jeffrey P. Lanza.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2002-0036
Severity Metric: 31.50
Date Public: 2003-01-28
Date First Published: 2003-01-31
Date Last Updated: 2003-04-04 20:02 UTC
Document Revision: 43

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