Bulletin Number: 00149

Title: Vulnerability in ps

Cross-Ref: AUSCERT 97.17

Create Date: August 12, 1997

Date: August 12, 1997

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1.  Bulletins Topics

    Sun announces the release of patches for Solaris 2.5.1, 2.5, 2.4, and 2.3 
    (SunOS 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4, and 5.3), which relate to a vulnerability in the
    ps program.

    Sun strongly recommends that you install the patches listed in section 4 
    immediately on systems running SunOS 5.5.1, 5.5, 5.4, and 5.3. Exploit 
    information is publicly available.

2.  Who is Affected
	
    Vulnerable:  SunOS versions 5.5.1, 5.5.1_x86, 5.5, 5.5_x86,
                                5.4, 5.4_x86, and 5.3.

    Not vulnerable:  All other supported versions of SunOS
     		
    The vulnerability is fixed in the upcoming release of Solaris.

3.  Understanding the Vulnerability

    The ps command prints information about active processes on a system.
    Due to insufficient bounds checking on arguments supplied to ps, it is 
    possible to overwrite the internal data space of the ps program. As ps is
    setuid root, this vulnerability may be exploited by users on a system to
    gain root access.

4.  List of Patches

    The vulnerability in ps is fixed by the following patches:

    OS version          Patch ID
    __________		________
    SunOS 5.5.1		105050-01	
    SunOS 5.5.1_x86	105051-01	
    SunOS 5.5		105052-01	
    SunOS 5.5_x86	105053-01	
    SunOS 5.4		102711-02	
    SunOS 5.4_x86	102712-02	
    SunOS 5.3		101545-03		

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
_______________   _________   __________   ________________________________
105050-01.tar.Z   40975 131   26675 261    9E75E084879BAAAC785735188F09BD1A
105051-01.tar.Z   34192 132   34975 264    612A6C200D59BA69087FCD3EBA6DF3B2
105052-01.tar.Z   37362 131   3540 261     41EE88EBC098B3E90E4FAEAA7E59E818
105053-01.tar.Z   38180 126   31988 252    D57C2E934B1AEE887535CBDB6E88D723
102711-02.tar.Z   12693 107   22447 214    DE783A4320E5F1290E8CCBEA6A313EDF
102712-02.tar.Z   16617 103   32208 205    DA1C0188D4137E30934182CC23A648FC
101545-03.tar.Z   46772 107   49688 214    12CF86B803C40842421DD284DAC7FDB0
_______________________________________________________________________________
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
   
    with a subject line (not body) containing one of the following commands:

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