Sun Security Bulletin #00178

[jg () FALSE NET (joshua grubman)]

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________________________________________________________________________________
                   Sun Microsystems, Inc. Security Bulletin

Bulletin Number:        #00178
Date:                   November 9, 1998
Cross-Ref:              ISS Security Advisory: Hidden community string in SNMP
                        implementation
Title:                  SNMP
________________________________________________________________________________

The information contained in this Security Bulletin is provided "AS IS."
Sun makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect to the information
contained in this Security Bulletin. ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS,
REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT OR
IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE
HEREBY DISCLAIMED AND EXCLUDED TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

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PROFIT OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL
OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN
THIS SECURITY BULLETIN, EVEN IF SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

If any of the above provisions are held to be in violation of applicable law,
void, or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, then such provisions are waived
to the extent necessary for this disclaimer to be otherwise enforceable in
such jurisdiction.
________________________________________________________________________________

1.  Background

    Solstice Enterprise Agents(tm) expands the scope of enterprise management
    by providing a comprehensive development and runtime environment
    enabling the creation of custom, extensible agents for device and
    system management for the Solaris(tm) operating environment.  Solstice
    Enterprise Agents(SEA) supports both the Simple Network Management
    Protocol and DMI protocols.

    Simple Network Management Protocol(SNMP) was designed to allow the
    remote management of systems and devices on a network.  SNMP relies on
    processes known as master agents and subagents.  Upon invocation,
    agents read various configuration files and maintain Management
    Information Bases(MIBs).  Access to information in the MIBs can be
    controlled by community strings.  A default community string is present
    in the Sun SNMP subagent that may be exploited by remote attackers to
    modify system parameters or execute arbitrary commands with root
    privileges.

    SEA was initially available as an unbundled product and later bundled
    with Solaris 2.6 at version 1.0.1.

2.  Recommendations

    Sun recommends that sites running Solaris 2.6 and sites running SEA on
    Solaris 2.5.1 upgrade the SEA software to SEA 1.0.3.

    SEA 1.0.3 is bundled with Solaris 7. SEA 1.0.3 is available for Solaris
    2.6, 2.6_x86, 2.5.1, and 2.5.1_x86 and may be downloaded from:

            http://www.sun.com/solstice/products/ent.agents/

    Sun also recommends that sites running SEA 1.0 on Solaris 2.4 and 2.5
    either disable SEA (see section 3) or upgrade the operating system to
    Solaris 7 if possible.  Sites upgrading to Solaris 2.5.1 or 2.6 may
    obtain SEA 1.0.3 from the URL listed above.

3.  Workaround

    Sun recommends that you disable SEA on vulnerable systems until
    SEA 1.0.3 is installed.

    To determine if your system is using SEA, use pkginfo on one of the
    following SEA packages: SUNWmibii, SUNWsacom, SUNWsadmi, SUNWsasnm.
    For example, on SEA 1.0 and 1.0.1, a pkginfo on SUNWmibii will display
    as follows:

        % pkginfo SUNWmibii
        system      SUNWmibii      Solstice Enterprise Agent SNMP daemon

    On SEA 1.0.2:

        % pkginfo SUNWmibii
        system      SUNWmibii      Solstice Enterprise Agents 1.0.2 SNMP daemon

    To disable SEA, perform the following steps:

                % su
                Password:
                # /etc/init.d/init.snmpdx stop
                # mv /etc/rc3.d/S76snmpdx /etc/rc3.d/DISABLED_S76snmpdx

_______________________________________________________________________________
APPENDICES

A.  Patches listed in this bulletin are available to all Sun customers via
    World Wide Web at:

        <URL:http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/pubpatches/patches.html>

B.  Checksums for the patches listed in this bulletin are available via
    World Wide Web at:

        <URL:http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/pubpatches/patches.html>

C.  Sun security bulletins are available via World Wide Web at:

        <URL:http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/secbulletins>

D.  Sun Security Coordination Team's PGP key is available via World Wide Web
    at:

        <URL:http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/secbulletins/SunSCkey.txt>

E.  To report or inquire about a security problem with Sun software, contact
    one or more of the following:

        - Your local Sun answer centers
        - Your representative computer security response team, such as CERT
        - Sun Security Coordination Team. Send email to:

                security-alert () sun com

F.  To receive information or subscribe to our CWS (Customer Warning System)
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                security-alert () sun com

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________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright 1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sun,
Sun Microsystems, Solaris and SunOS are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. This
Security Bulletin may be reproduced and distributed, provided that this
Security Bulletin is not modified in any way and is attributed to
Sun Microsystems, Inc. and provided that such reproduction and distribution
is performed for non-commercial purposes.

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