Postfix symlink code execution
| postfix-symlink-code-execution (44460) |  Medium Risk |
Description:
Postfix could allow a local attacker with write permission to the mail spool directory to execute arbitrary code on the system when a root mailbox does not exist on the system, caused by an error when handling symlink files. By creating hardlink a root-owned symlink to /var/mail, an attacker could execute arbitrary code with root privileges.
Platforms Affected:
- Canonical, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
- Canonical, Ubuntu 7.04
- Canonical, Ubuntu 7.10
- Canonical, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
- Debian, Debian Linux 4.0
- Gentoo, Linux
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux 2007.1
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux 2007.1 X86_64
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux 2008.0
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux 2008.0 X86_64
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux 2008.1
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux 2008.1 X86_64
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux Corporate Server 3.0 X86_64
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux Corporate Server 3.0
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux Corporate Server 4.0
- MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux Corporate Server 4.0 X86_64
- Novell, Linux Desktop 9
- Novell, Linux POS 9
- Novell, Open Enterprise Server
- Novell, OpenSUSE 10.2
- Novell, OpenSUSE 10.3
- Novell, OpenSUSE 11.0
- Novell, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1
- Novell, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP2
- Novell, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2
- Novell, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 3 AS
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 3 ES
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 3 Desktop
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 3 WS
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 4 WS
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 4 ES
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 4 AS
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 4 Desktop
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 5 Client
- RedHat, Enterprise Linux 5
- SuSE, SuSE SLES 9
- Turbolinux, Turbolinux 10 Server
- Turbolinux, Turbolinux 10 Server x64 Ed
- Turbolinux, Turbolinux 11 Server
- Turbolinux, Turbolinux 11 Server x64 Ed
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.0
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.1
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.10
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.11
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.12
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.13
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.14
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.2
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.3
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.4
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.5
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.6
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.7
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.8
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.3.9
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.0
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.1
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.2
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.3
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.4
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.5
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.6
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.4.7
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.5.0
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.5.1
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.5.2
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.5.3
- Wietse Venema, Postfix 2.6.0
- Wietse Venema, Postfix
Remedy:
Upgrade to the latest version of Postfix (2.5.4 Patchlevel 4 or later), available from the Postfix Web site. See References.
Consequences:
Gain Privileges
References:
- BugTraq Mailing List, Thu Aug 14 2008 - 07:03:43 CDT, Postfix local privilege escalation via hardlinked symlinks at http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2008-08/0172.html.
- Postfix Web site, Die Postfix Homepage at http://de.postfix.org/.
- Postfix Web site, 20080814 at http://de.postfix.org/ftpmirror/official/postfix-2.5.4.HISTORY.
- SUSE Security Announcement SUSE-SA:2008:040, postfix Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:00:00 +0000 at http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-08/msg00002.html.
- ASA-2008-356: postfix security update (RHSA-2008-0839)
- BID-30691: Postfix Local Information Disclosure and Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities
- CVE-2008-2936: Postfix before 2.3.15, 2.4 before 2.4.8, 2.5 before 2.5.4, and 2.6 before 2.6-20080814, when the operating system supports hard links to symlinks, allows local users to append e-mail messages to a file to which a root-owned symlink points, by creating a hard link to this symlink and then sending a message. NOTE: this can be leveraged to gain privileges if there is a symlink to an init script.
- DSA-1629: postfix -- programming error
- GLSA-200808-12: Postfix: Local privilege escalation vulnerability
- MDVSA-2008:171: postfix
- RHSA-2008-0839: Moderate: postfix security update
- SA31485: Postfix Symlink Handling and Destination Ownership Security Issues
- SECTRACK ID: 1020700: Postfix Symlink Dereference Bug Lets Local Users Gain Elevated Privileges
- SUSE-SA:2008:040: postfix security problem
Reported:
Aug 14, 2008
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