From security-advisories@freebsd.org Tue Jan 16 19:52:21 2001 From: FreeBSD Security Advisories To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS.COM Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 14:31:45 -0800 Subject: [BUGTRAQ] FreeBSD Ports Security Advisory: FreeBSD-SA-01:04.joe -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ============================================================================= FreeBSD-SA-01:04 Security Advisory FreeBSD, Inc. Topic: joe creates insecure recovery files Category: ports Module: joe Announced: 2001-01-15 Credits: Christer Öberg and Patrik Birgersson, of Wkit Security AB Affects: Ports collection prior to the correction date. Corrected: 2000-12-12 Vendor status: Updated version released FreeBSD only: NO I. Background joe is a text editor. II. Problem Description The joe port, versions prior to 2.8_2, contains a local vulnerability: if a joe session with an unsaved file terminates abnormally, joe creates a rescue copy of the file called ``DEADJOE'' in the same directory as the file being edited. The creation of this copy is made without checking if the file is a symbolic link. If the file is a link, joe will append the contents of the unsaved file to the linked file: therefore if the joe editor is run on a private file in a public directory such as /tmp, an attacker can access the contents of the edited file by causing it to be appended to a world-writable file owned by the attacker if the joe process terminates abnormally. The joe port is not installed by default, nor is it "part of FreeBSD" as such: it is part of the FreeBSD ports collection, which contains nearly 4500 third-party applications in a ready-to-install format. The ports collections shipped with FreeBSD 3.5.1 and 4.2 contain this problem since it was discovered after the releases. FreeBSD makes no claim about the security of these third-party applications, although an effort is underway to provide a security audit of the most security-critical ports. III. Impact Malicious local users, under certain restricted conditions, may obtain read access to non-readable files edited using the joe editor. If you have not chosen to install the joe port/package, then your system is not vulnerable to this problem. IV. Workaround Deinstall the joe port/package, if you have installed it. V. Solution One of the following: 1) Upgrade your entire ports collection and rebuild the joe port. 2) Deinstall the old package and install a new package dated after the correction date, obtained from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/editors/joe-2.8_2.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/editors/joe-2.8_2.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/editors/joe-2.8_2.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/editors/joe-2.8_2.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/editors/joe-2.8_2.tgz 3) download a new port skeleton for the joe port from: http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ and use it to rebuild the port. 4) Use the portcheckout utility to automate option (3) above. The portcheckout port is available in /usr/ports/devel/portcheckout or the package can be obtained from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.4 (FreeBSD) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iQCVAwUBOmN6S1UuHi5z0oilAQGiyAP+I8VOR5J8ThxuinRuGlwI9sIRImmMRxfd oHYJFWQRoNfQTSdE6Q+ushjqJNPL7JrU8PZjSL/6wE89CVGeZL+70/wTz8HU9Ihi 8j8y98Fo+NvkBgpaLz5Ypo7Wpi3rZiEPzKTmfByk6CjVuwUc5k13aswcIg3TcZh0 TZuJFzhBxm8= =baNZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----