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Solaris Line Printer Daemon (in.lpd) vulnerable to buffer overflow via transfer job routine

Vulnerability Note VU#484011

Original Release Date: 2001-06-21 | Last Revised: 2001-08-31

Overview

A buffer overflow exists in the Solaris line printer daemon (in.lpd) that may allow a remote intruder to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the running in.lpd. This daemon runs with root privileges by default on all recent versions of Solaris.

Description

The Solaris in.lpd provides services for remote users to interact with a local printer, listening for remote requests on port 515/tcp. There is an unchecked buffer in the part of the code responsible for transferring print jobs from one machine to another. If given too many jobs to work on at once, an attacker can either crash the printer daemon or attempt to execute arbitrary code with super user privileges on the victim system.

This problem was discovered by ISS X-Force and posted here on June 19, 2001.

Vulnerable versions of Solaris are as follows:

    Solaris 2.6
    Solaris 2.6 x86
    Solaris 7
    Solaris 7 x86
    Solaris 8
    Solaris 8 x86

Sun recommends the following workarounds until the patches identified below may be applied:
    • Disable the print service in /etc/inetd.conf
    • Enable the noexec_user_stack tunable
    • Block access to 515/tcp (printer) at all appropriate network perimeters

Impact

A remote intruder may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges in the running daemon (typically root). In addition, a remote intruder may be able to crash vulnerable printer daemons.

Solution

Patches have been released by Sun. They are part of a jumbo lp patch set identified by the following ids, per Sun Security Bulletin #206:

    The following patches are available in relation to the above problem.

        OS Version               Patch ID
       __________               _________
       SunOS 5.8                109320-04
       SunOS 5.8_x86            109321-04
       SunOS 5.7                107115-09
       SunOS 5.7_x86            107116-09
       SunOS 5.6                106235-09
       SunOS 5.6_x86            106236-09

The in.lpd daemon was not available prior to Solaris 2.6.

These patches resolve Sun problem report 4446925 *in.lpd* contains a remote exploitable overflow.

Workarounds


    • Disable the print service in /etc/inetd.conf
    • Enable the noexec_user_stack tunable
    • Block access to 515/tcp (printer) at all appropriate network perimeters

Vendor Information

484011
 

Sun Affected

Notified:  June 21, 2001 Updated: August 31, 2001

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

________________________________________________________________________________
                   Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin

Bulletin Number:          #00206
Date:                     August 30, 2001
Cross-Ref:                CERT Advisory CA-2001-15
Title:                    in.lpd
________________________________________________________________________________

The information contained in this Security Bulletin is provided "AS IS."
Sun makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect to the information
contained in this Security Bulletin. ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS,
REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT OR
IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE
HEREBY DISCLAIMED AND EXCLUDED TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

IN NO EVENT WILL SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE,
PROFIT OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL
OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN
THIS SECURITY BULLETIN, EVEN IF SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

If any of the above provisions are held to be in violation of applicable law,
void, or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, then such provisions are waived
to the extent necessary for this disclaimer to be otherwise enforceable in
such jurisdiction.
________________________________________________________________________________

1.  Bulletins Topics

    Sun announces the release of patches for Solaris(tm) 8, 7, and
   2.6 (SunOS(tm) 5.8, 5.7, and 5.6) which relate to an in.lpd
   vulnerability reported in CERT CA-2001-15.

    Sun recommends that you install the patches listed in section 4
   immediately on systems running SunOS 5.8, 5.7, and 5.6 which
   use in.lpd.

2.  Who is Affected

    Vulnerable:                SunOS 5.8, 5.8_x86, 5.7, 5.7_x86, 5.6,
                              5.6_x86

3.  Understanding the Vulnerability

    The in.lpd daemon is the BSD print protocol daemon.  The in.lpd
   daemon implements the network listening service for the BSD
   print protocol specified in RFC 1179.  The BSD print protocol
   provides a remote interface for systems to interact with a
   local spooling system. CERT Advisory CA-2001-15 describes a
   buffer overflow in the in.lpd daemon which may crash in.lpd or
   allow arbitrary code to be executed with elevated privileges
   on the victim system. The issue was discovered by ISS X-Force
   who published an advisory at:

    http://xforce.iss.net/alerts/advise80.php

    CERT Advisory CA-2001-15 is available from:

    http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2001-15.html

4.  List of Patches

    The following patches are available in relation to the above problem.

    OS Version               Patch ID
   __________               _________
   SunOS 5.8                109320-04
   SunOS 5.8_x86            109321-04
   SunOS 5.7                107115-09
   SunOS 5.7_x86            107116-09
   SunOS 5.6                106235-09
   SunOS 5.6_x86            106236-09
_______________________________________________________________________________

APPENDICES

A.  Patches listed in this bulletin are available to all Sun customers at:

    http://sunsolve.sun.com/securitypatch

B.  Checksums for the patches listed in this bulletin are available at:

    ftp://sunsolve.sun.com/pub/patches/CHECKSUMS

C.  Sun security bulletins are available at:

    http://sunsolve.sun.com/security

D.  Sun Security Coordination Team's PGP key is available at:

    http://sunsolve.sun.com/pgpkey.txt

E.  To report or inquire about a security problem with Sun software, contact
   one or more of the following:

        - Your local Sun answer centers
       - Your representative computer security response team, such as CERT
       - Sun Security Coordination Team. Send email to:

        security-alert@sun.com

F.  To receive information or subscribe to our CWS (Customer Warning System)
   mailing list, send email to:

        security-alert@sun.com

    with a subject line (not body) containing one of the following commands:

        Command         Information Returned/Action Taken
       _______         _________________________________

        help            An explanation of how to get information

        key             Sun Security Coordination Team's PGP key

        list            A list of current security topics

        query [topic]   The email is treated as an inquiry and is forwarded to
                       the Security Coordination Team

        report [topic]  The email is treated as a security report and is
                       forwarded to the Security Coordination Team. Please
                       encrypt sensitive mail using Sun Security Coordination
                       Team's PGP key

        send topic      A short status summary or bulletin. For example, to
                       retrieve a Security Bulletin #00138, supply the
                       following in the subject line (not body):

                                send #138

        subscribe       Sender is added to our mailing list.  To subscribe,
                       supply the following in the subject line (not body):

                                subscribe cws your-email-address

                        Note that your-email-address should be substituted
                       by your email address.

        unsubscribe     Sender is removed from the CWS mailing list.
________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright 2000 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sun,
Sun Microsystems, Solaris and SunOS are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. This
Security Bulletin may be reproduced and distributed, provided that this
Security Bulletin is not modified in any way and is attributed to
Sun Microsystems, Inc. and provided that such reproduction and distribution
is performed for non-commercial purposes.

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Vendor Information

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

Addendum

Sun has confirmed the existence of this vulnerability andnow has patches included in a jumbo set provided for all lp services. Until these patches can be applied, the following workarounds may be used to mitigate against the risk of being attacked via exploitation of this vulnerability:

    • Disable the print service in /etc/inetd.conf
    • Enable the noexec_user_stack tunable
    • Block access to 515/tcp (printer) at all appropriate network perimeters

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


CVSS Metrics

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References

Acknowledgements

The X-Force team of Internet Security Systems, Inc. has released an advisory about this issue.

This document was written by Jeffrey S. Havrilla

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2001-0353
CERT Advisory: CA-2001-15
Severity Metric: 56.43
Date Public: 2001-06-19
Date First Published: 2001-06-21
Date Last Updated: 2001-08-31 17:30 UTC
Document Revision: 12

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