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CERT Coordination Center

Hewlett Packard HP-UX pcltotiff is installed with insecure permissions

Vulnerability Note VU#314776

Original Release Date: 2001-08-15 | Last Revised: 2001-08-17

Overview

The utility pcltotiff is installed with insecure permissions on some Hewlett Packard systems.

Description

The HP utility pcltotiff is installed with sgid bin permissions in order to read files in /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ifo.st/typefaces/. This gives more permissions to pcltotiff than are required. For more information, see HP Security Bulletin HPSBUX0104-149.

Impact

The complete impact of this vulnerability is not yet known. Hewlett Packard lists the impact as "Denial of service," but it is unclear why.

Solution

Change the permissions on the file as described in HP bulletin.

Vendor Information

314776
 

Hewlett Packard Affected

Updated:  August 17, 2001

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

                        HP Support Information Digests

===============================================================================
o  IT Resource Center World Wide Web Service
  ---------------------------------------------------

   If you subscribed through the IT Resource Center and would
  like to be REMOVED from this mailing list, access the
  IT Resource Center on the World Wide Web at:

     http://www.itresourcecenter.hp.com/

   Login using your IT Resource Center User ID and Password.
  Then select Support Information Digests (located under
  Maintenance and Support).  You may then unsubscribe from the
  appropriate digest.
===============================================================================


Digest Name:  daily security bulletins digest
   Created:  Tue Apr 24  3:00:03 PDT 2001

Table of Contents:

Document ID      Title
---------------  -----------
HPSBUX0104-149   Sec. Vulnerability in pcltotiff

The documents are listed below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Document ID:  HPSBUX0104-149
Date Loaded:  20010423
     Title:  Sec. Vulnerability in pcltotiff

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
   HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY SECURITY ADVISORY #0149, 19 April 2001
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The information in the following Security Advisory should be acted upon
as soon as possible.  Hewlett-Packard Company will not be liable for any
consequences to any customer resulting from customer's failure to fully
implement instructions in this Security Advisory as soon as possible.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROBLEM:  /opt/sharedprint/bin/pcltotiff has unsafe permissions.

PLATFORM:  HP9000 Series 700/800 running HP-UX releases 10.01,
          10.10, 10.20, 10.26

DAMAGE:  Denial of service.

SOLUTION:  Change the permissions on /opt/sharedprint/bin/pcltotiff.

AVAILABILITY:  This advisory will be upgraded to a bulletin when patches
              are available.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I.
  A. Background

      /opt/sharedprint/bin/pcltotiff is in group bin with set group id
     permissions.  This is necessary to allow pcltotiff to read files
     in /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ifo.st/typefaces/.

   B. Fixing the problem

      Remove the set group id permissions from pcltotiff and
     allow read access to /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ifo.st/typefaces/.

   C. Recommended solution

      /sbin/chmod 555 /opt/sharedprint/bin/pcltotiff
     /sbin/chmod o+r /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ifo.st/typefaces/*

      To avoid swverify errors:

      #!/sbin/sh
     /usr/sbin/swmodify -x files='/opt/sharedprint/bin/pcltotiff' \
       SharedPrint.SHPRNT-PCL

       for i in `/sbin/ls /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ifo.st/typefaces`
      do
       /usr/bin/swmodify \
         -x files='/usr/lib/X11/fonts/ifo.st/typefaces/$i' \
         X11.X11-FONTSRV
     done

   D. To subscribe to automatically receive future NEW HP Security
     Bulletins from the HP IT Resource Center via electronic mail,
     do the following:

      Use your browser to get to the HP IT Resource Center page
     at:

       http://itrc.hp.com

      Under the Maintenance and Support Menu (Electronic Support Center):
     click on the "more..." link.  Then -

      Use the 'Login' tab at the left side of the screen to login
     using your ID and password.  Check with your system
     administrator to see if you have an existing login or use
     the "Register" button at the left to create a login.  You
     will need to login in order to gain access to many areas of
     the ITRC. Remember to save the User ID assigned to you, and
     your password.

      Under the Maintenance and Support Menu, click on the "more..."
     link.  Under the "Notifications" section (near the bottom of
     the page), select "Support Information Digests".

      To -subscribe- to future HP Security Bulletins or other
     Technical Digests, click the check box (in the left column)
     for the appropriate digest and then click the "Update
     Subscriptions" button at the bottom of the page.

      or

      To -review- bulletins already released, select the link
     (in the middle column) for the appropriate digest.

      To -gain access- to the Security Patch Matrix, select
     the link for "The Security Bulletins Archive".  Once in
     the archive the third link is to our current Security
     Patch Matrix. Updated daily, this matrix categorizes security
     patches by platform/OS release, and by bulletin topic.

      The security patch matrix is also available via anonymous ftp:

      ftp.itrc.hp.com
     ~ftp/export/patches/hp-ux_patch_matrix"

      On the "Support Information Digest Main" page:
     click on the "HP Security Bulletin Archive".

   E. To report new security vulnerabilities, send email to

      security-alert@hp.com

      Please encrypt any exploit information using the security-alert
     PGP key, available from your local key server, or by sending a
     message with a -subject- (not body) of 'get key' (no quotes) to
     security-alert@hp.com.

      Permission is granted for copying and circulating this Advisory to
     Hewlett-Packard (HP) customers (or the Internet community) for the
     purpose of alerting them to problems, if and only if, the Advisory
     is not edited or changed in any way, is attributed to HP, and
     provided such reproduction and/or distribution is performed for
     non-commercial purposes.

      Any other use of this information is prohibited. HP is not liable
     for any misuse of this information by any third party.

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.


CVSS Metrics

Group Score Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

Acknowledgements

This document was written by Shawn V. Hernan.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2001-0488
Severity Metric: 2.53
Date Public: 2001-04-24
Date First Published: 2001-08-15
Date Last Updated: 2001-08-17 21:25 UTC
Document Revision: 7

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