Conectiva LINUX telnet remote root vulnerability

posted onAugust 25, 2001

by hitbsecnews

The TESO crew reported on Bugtraq a vulnerability affecting the telnet server which can be used by remote attackers to obtain root privileges. Initially it was thought that the netkit-telnet package, used by most linux distributions, was not vulnerable starting with version 0.14, but zen-parse showed later on that those versions, including the 0.17 one, are also vulnerable.

SOLUTION: We recommend that all users currently using telnet start using openssh instead or some other form of encrypted communication. Users who cannot switch to openssh now should upgrade the telnet package immediately. Please note that no restart is necessary after the upgrade, since telnet is started on demand by inetd....

Conectiva Linux Security Announcement - telnet

Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 15:50:00 -0300
Subject: [CLA-2001:413] Conectiva Linux Security Announcement - telnet
From: secure@conectiva.com.br

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CONECTIVA LINUX SECURITY ANNOUNCEMENT
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PACKAGE : telnet
SUMMARY : Remote root vulnerability
DATE : 2001-08-24 15:43:00
ID : CLA-2001:413
RELEVANT
RELEASES : 4.0, 4.0es, 4.1, 4.2, 5.0, prg graficos, ecommerce, 5.1, 6.0, 7.0

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DESCRIPTION
The TESO crew reported on Bugtraq a vulnerability affecting the
telnet server which can be used by remote attackers to obtain root
privileges. Initially it was thought that the netkit-telnet package,
used by most linux distributions, was not vulnerable starting with
version 0.14, but zen-parse showed later on that those versions,
including the 0.17 one, are also vulnerable.

SOLUTION
We recommend that all users currently using telnet start using
openssh instead or some other form of encrypted communication.
Users who cannot switch to openssh now should upgrade the telnet
package immediately. Please note that no restart is necessary after
the upgrade, since telnet is started on demand by inetd.

REFERENCES:
1. http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/3064

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS
Users of Conectiva Linux version 6.0 or higher may use apt to perform
upgrades of RPM packages:
- add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list if it is not there yet
(you may also use linuxconf to do this):

rpm [cncbr] ftp://atualizacoes.conectiva.com.br 6.0/conectiva updates

(replace 6.0 with the correct version number if you are not running CL6.0)

- run: apt-get update
- after that, execute: apt-get upgrade

Detailed instructions reagarding the use of apt and upgrade examples
can be found at http://distro.conectiva.com.br/atualizacoes/#apt?idioma=en

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All packages are signed with Conectiva's GPG key. The key and instructions
on how to import it can be found at
http://distro.conectiva.com.br/seguranca/chave/?idioma=en
Instructions on how to check the signatures of the RPM packages can be
found at http://distro.conectiva.com.br/seguranca/politica/?idioma=en
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All our advisories and generic update instructions can be viewed at
http://distro.conectiva.com.br/atualizacoes/?idioma=en

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