Bulletin Number: 00148

Title: Vulnerability in NIS+

Cross-Ref: 

Create Date: July 30, 1997

Date: July 30, 1997

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1.  Bulletins Topics

    Sun announces the release of patches for Solaris 2.4 and 2.3 (SunOS 5.4 
    and 5.3) which relate to a vulnerability in NIS+.

    Sun strongly recommends that you install the patches listed in section 4 
    immediately on systems running SunOS 5.4 and 5.3 which use NIS+.

2.  Who is Affected
	
    Vulnerable:  SunOS versions 5.4, 5.4_x86, and 5.3 which use NIS+.
    
    Not Vulnerable: SunOS 4.1.3_U1, 4.1.4, 5.5, 5.5_x86, 5.5.1, 5.5.1_x86,
                    and the upcoming version of Solaris.
 
3.  Understanding the Vulnerability

    NIS+ is a network-wide name service that runs under Solaris. It can be
    selected as the name service in /etc/nsswitch.conf. If NIS+ is selected,
    programs with setuid root permissions will link nss_nisplus.so.1 which
    is susceptible to a buffer overflow vulnerability. This vulnerability may 
    allow non-privileged users to gain root privileges.

4.  List of Patches

    The vulnerability in NIS+ is fixed by the following patches:

    OS version		Patch ID
    __________		________
    SunOS 5.4		102277-03	
    SunOS 5.4_x86	102278-03	
    SunOS 5.3		101736-04
 		
5.  Checksum Table

    The checksum table below shows the BSD checksums (SunOS 5.x: /usr/ucb/sum),
    SVR4 checksums (SunOS 5.x: /usr/bin/sum), and the MD5 digital signatures 
    for the above-mentioned patches that are available from:
     
     	<URL:ftp://sunsolve1.sun.com/pub/patches/patches.html>
     	
    These checksums may not apply if you obtain patches from your answer
    centers. 

File Name	  BSD	     SVR4	  MD5
_______________   ________   _________    ________________________________
102277-03.tar.Z   10681 76   2019 152     4585727103680C70301D2F7679C9EA6D
102278-03.tar.Z   52108 76   53872 151    5040EB6980280C729051927BFB5C8130
101736-04.tar.Z   27381 77   18741 153    0AC81583908220A4D92CF5C091D6212C

________________________________________________________________________________
Sun is a member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams. 
For more information about FIRST, visit the FIRST web site at 
"http://www.first.org/".
________________________________________________________________________________
APPENDICES

A.  Patches listed in this bulletin are available to all Sun customers via 
    World Wide Web at:
    
    	<URL:ftp://sunsolve1.sun.com/pub/patches/patches.html>
    	
    Customers with Sun support contracts can also obtain patches from local 
    Sun answer centers and SunSITEs worldwide.

B.  Sun security bulletins are available via World Wide Web at:

	<URL:http://sunsolve1.sun.com/sunsolve/secbulletins>
	    
C.  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

D.  To receive information or subscribe to our CWS (Customer Warning System) 
    mailing list, send email to:
    
    		security-alert@sun.com
   
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