Security Vulnerabilities in Java Runtime Environment May Allow Network Access Restrictions to be Circumvented

[1] A vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) may allow malicious Javascript code that is downloaded by a browser from a malicious website to make network connections, through Java APIs, to network services on machines other than the one that the Javascript code was downloaded from. This may allow network resources (such as web pages) and vulnerabilities (that exist on these network services) which are not otherwise normally accessible to be accessed or exploited.

[2] A second vulnerability in the JRE may allow an untrusted applet that is downloaded from a malicious website through a web proxy to make network connections to network services on machines other than the one that the applet was downloaded from. This may allow network resources (such as web pages) and vulnerabilities (that exist on these network services) which are not otherwise normally accessible to be accessed or exploited.

Both issues are reported in the following publication:

http://crypto.stanford.edu/dns/

and the second issue is also reported at:

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Jul/0159.html

Sun acknowledges with thanks, Dan Boneh, Collin Jackson, Adam Barth, Andrew Bortz, Weidong Shao, and David Byrne for bringing these issues to our attention.

The first issue can occur in the following releases (for Windows, Solaris, and Linux running the Firefox and Opera browsers):

• JDK and JRE 6 Update 2 and earlier
• JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 12 and earlier
• SDK and JRE 1.4.2_15 and earlier
• SDK and JRE 1.3.1_20 and earlier

Note: This issue does not affect the Internet Explorer browser.

The second issue can occur in the following releases (for Windows, Solaris, and Linux):

• JDK and JRE 6 Update 2 and earlier
• JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 12 and earlier
• SDK and JRE 1.4.2_15 and earlier
• SDK and JRE 1.3.1_20 and earlier

To determine the default version of the JRE that Internet Explorer uses:

1. Click "Tools" in the Menu Bar at the top of the browser
2. Select "Sun Java Console"
3. The first two lines in the console displays the version of Java Plug-in and JRE that Internet Explorer uses

To determine the default version of the JRE that Mozilla or Firefox browsers use, visit the URL "about:plugins".

The browser will display a page called "Installed plug-ins" which lists the version of the Java Plug-in such as the following:

Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_11-b03

This above example indicates that the version of the JRE that the browser uses is 1.5.0_11.

There are no predictable symptoms that would indicate that the above issues have been exploited.

Several options to mitigate the risk of these vulnerabilities are documented in the Stanford DNS Rebinding paper referenced above. The options include modifying browsers, configuring DNS servers and firewalls. More details are available in the paper at the URL above (please see the Impact Statement).

Sun has included changes that perform additional hostname matching using DNS reverse mapping data to mitigate these issues. We are working with industry partners to more fully address these issues and will include additional improvements in later update releases.

[1] Mitigations for the first issue are included in the following releases (for Windows, Solaris and Linux):

• JDK and JRE 6 Update 3 and later
• JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 13 and later
• SDK and JRE 1.4.2_16 and later

and are included in the following release (for Windows and Solaris 8):

• SDK and JRE 1.3.1_21 and later

[2] Migitations for the second issue are included in the following releases (for Windows, Solaris, and Linux):

• JDK and JRE 6 Update 3 and later
• JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 13 and later

and are included in later releases of SDK and JRE 1.4.2 and 1.3.1.

JDK and JRE 6 Update 3 is available for download at:

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

http://java.com

JDK 6 Update 3 for Solaris is available in the following patches:

• Java SE 6: update 3 (as delivered in patch 125136-04 or later)
• Java SE 6: update 3 (as delivered in patch 125137-04 or later (64bit))
• Java SE 6_x86: update 3 (as delivered in patch 125138-04 or later)
• Java SE 6_x86: update 3 (as delivered in patch 125139-04 or later (64bit))

JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 13 is available for download at:

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp

JDK 5.0 Update 13 for Solaris is available in the following patches:

• J2SE 5.0: update 13 (as delivered in patch 118666-14 or later)
• J2SE 5.0: update 13 (as delivered in patch 118667-14 or later (64bit))
• J2SE 5.0_x86: update 13 (as delivered in patch 118668-14 or later)
• J2SE 5.0_x86: update 13 (as delivered in patch 118669-14 or later (64bit))

SDK and JRE 1.4.2_16 is available for download at:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

SDK and JRE 1.3.1 for Solaris 8 is available for download at:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/download.html

SDK and JRE 1.3.1 has completed the Sun End of Life (EOL) process and is only supported for customers with Solaris 8 and Vintage Support Offering support contracts (see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/download.html). Sun strongly recommends that users upgrade to the latest releases.

Note: When installing a new version of the product from a source other than a Solaris patch, it is recommended that the old affected versions be removed from your system. To remove old affected versions on the Windows platform, please see:

http://java.com/en/download/help/uninstall_java.xml

09-Oct-2007: Updated Resolution section
22-Oct-2007: Updated Resolution section
05-Sep-2008: No further updates, republish as Resolved

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