-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- =============================================================================== Security Advisory CERT-NL =============================================================================== Author/Source : Don Stikvoort Index : S-95-14 Distribution : World Page : 1 Classification: External Version: 1 Subject : OSF/DCE Security Hole Date : 25-Jul-95 =============================================================================== By courtesy of the Open Software Foundation and CERT/CC we received the following information about a security hole in OSF/DCE. We advise you to take proper notice if this applies to your situation, and take relevant steps. ============================================================================== Advisory on OSF/DCE Security Hole July 19, 1995 It has been discovered that OSF/DCE security has a flawed aliasing mechanism in its registry that can potentially yield a less secure DCE cell. PROBLEM: Multiple administrators in a DCE cell (i.e., principals with the privileges required to create principals and accounts within the DCE registry), some of which are intended to be less trusted than the cell administrator (e.g., principals intended to be restricted to create principals and accounts only within a subset of DCE registry name space), cannot be prevented from acquiring full privileges of the cell administrator. Due to a flaw in the DCE security registry such less privileged administrators are able to gain full privileges by creating an alias to the cell administrator. The security server grants an alias principal full rights of the principal it is aliased to. DCE security registry principals are generally not allowed to create accounts. Only an account designated as some type of administrator, by explicitly creating ACL entries for that principal, allows it to do things to the registry that normal users are not allowed to do, that is, create principals and accounts in a certain part of the security name space. In OSF/DCE as it ships, only cell_admin is given such privileges. To that effect, the DCE cell administrator can prevent any loss of security by following the guidelines described below. HOW TO AVOID: This security hole has existed in all releases of OSF/DCE todate. To avoid the problem in releases prior to OSF/DCE 1.1, the DCE cell administrators should not explicitly give registry administration rights to principals that would not otherwise have access to the cell administrator account itself. As distributed by OSF, only cell_admin is given such rights. OSF is in the process of providing a fix for this defect to DCE 1.1 support licensees for them to apply to their DCE 1.1 based products. The end-users may ask their DCE vendors for such a fix. All future releases of OSF/DCE will have this fix incorporated. ********************************************************************** OSF Systems Engineering Open Software Foundation 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142 Telephone: +1 617 621 8990 E-mail: dce-support-admin@osf.org ============================================================================== CERT-NL is the Computer Emergency Response Team for SURFnet customers. SURFnet is the Dutch network for educational, research and related institutes. CERT-NL is a member of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). All CERT-NL material is available under: http://www.surfnet.nl/surfnet/security/cert-nl.html ftp://ftp.surfnet.nl/surfnet/net-security In case of computer or network security problems please contact your local CERT/security-team or CERT-NL (if your institute is NOT a SURFnet customer please address the appropriate (local) CERT/security-team). CERT-NL is one/two hour(s) ahead of UTC (GMT) in winter/summer, i.e. UTC+0100 in winter and UTC+0200 in summer (DST). Email: cert-nl@surfnet.nl Phone: +31 302 305 305 Fax: +31 302 305 329 Snailmail: SURFnet bv Attn. CERT-NL P.O. Box 19035 NL - 3501 DA UTRECHT The Netherlands A 7 * 24 hours phone number is available to SURFnet SSC's and FIRST members on request. ============================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i iQCVAwUBMML+FB68tkuRYDgtAQHRXAP/fDd6Vqb6flkYg97u8eVZv18LYZtmTW9c wmHL7E1LWH4Ao2bNR7AMGDMg+2pB0yLRX7xZwfXIOwQJhJ+AsKAcxS6Y3MQTIjt1 lkgwbj8iKKGtAn0auxjj3AnLKZWT3mjJTBfcPyqZ5SOkdcTwA46C/xzjoAjBSOhg IodQkdAWChE= =Nv29 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----