Dovecot: Multiple vulnerabilities

Security Team Contact Address

Updated December 14, 2008

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200812-16 / dovecot
Release Date	December 14, 2008
Latest Revision	December 14, 2008: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
net-mail/dovecot	< 1.1.7-r1	>= 1.1.7-r1	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #240409, #244962, #245316

Synopsis

Multiple vulnerabilities were found in the Dovecot mailserver.

2. Impact Information

Background

Dovecot is an IMAP and POP3 server written with security primarily in mind.

Description

Several vulnerabilities were found in Dovecot:

The "k" right in the acl_plugin does not work as expected (CVE-2008-4577, CVE-2008-4578)
The dovecot.conf is world-readable, providing improper protection for the ssl_key_password setting (CVE-2008-4870)
A permanent Denial of Service with broken mail headers is possible (CVE-2008-4907)

Impact

These vulnerabilities might allow a remote attacker to cause a Denial of Service, to circumvent security restrictions or allow local attackers to disclose the passphrase of the SSL private key.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Dovecot users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-mail/dovecot-1.1.7-r1"

Users should be aware that dovecot.conf will still be world-readable after the update. If employing ssl_key_password, it should not be used in dovecot.conf but in a separate file which should be included with "include_try".

4. References