MIT Kerberos 5: Multiple local privilege escalation vulnerabilities

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200608-15 / MIT Kerberos 5
Release Date	August 10, 2006
Latest Revision	August 10, 2006: 01
Impact	high
Exploitable	local

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
app-crypt/mit-krb5	< 1.4.3-r3	>= 1.4.3-r3	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #143240

Synopsis

Some applications shipped with MIT Kerberos 5 are vulnerable to local privilege escalation.

2. Impact Information

Background

MIT Kerberos 5 is a suite of applications that implement the Kerberos network protocol. It is designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications by using secret-key cryptography.

Description

Unchecked calls to setuid() in krshd and v4rcp, as well as unchecked calls to seteuid() in kftpd and in ksu, have been found in the MIT Kerberos 5 program suite and may lead to a local root privilege escalation.

Impact

A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All MIT Kerberos 5 users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-crypt/mit-krb5-1.4.3-r3"

4. References

Page updated August 10, 2006

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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