Wu-ftpd Vulnerability Privacy and Legal Notice

CIAC INFORMATION BULLETIN

J-065: Wu-ftpd Vulnerability

September 1, 1999 23:00 GMT
PROBLEM:       The WU-FTPD Development Group has been informed there is a 
               vulnerability in some versions of wu-ftpd.             
PLATFORM:      All platforms using:
               wu-ftpd-2.4.2-beta-18-vr4 through wu-ftpd-2.4.2-beta-18-vr15
               wu-ftpd-2.4.2-vr16 and wu-ftpd-2.4.2-vr17
               wu-ftpd-2.5.0
               BeroFTPD, all present versions 
               Other derivatives of wu-ftpd may be effected.  
DAMAGE:        Exploiting this vulnerability may lead to a root compromise.
SOLUTION:      Upgrade to latest version and apply patch.

VULNERABILITY Risk is high. Exploit information involving this vulnerability ASSESSMENT: has been made publicly available. This vulnerability can lead to a root compromise.
[ Start WU-FTPD Development Group Advisory ] WU-FTPD Security Update The WU-FTPD Development Group has been informed there is a vulnerability in some versions of wu-ftpd. This vulnerability may allow local & remote users to gain root privileges. Exploit information involving this vulnerability has been made publicly available. The WU-FTPD Development Group recommends sites take the steps outlined below as soon as possible. 1. Description Due to insufficient bounds checking on directory name lengths which can be supplied by users, it is possible to overwrite the static memory space of the wu-ftpd daemon while it is executing under certain configurations. By having the ability to create directories and supplying carefully designed directory names to the wu-ftpd, users may gain privileged access. 2. Impact This vulnerability may allow local & remote users to gain root privileges. 3. Workarounds/Solution Sites may prevent the exploitation of the vulnerability in wu-ftpd by immediately upgrading and applying available patches. 3.1 Affected versions Versions known to be effected are: wu-ftpd-2.4.2-beta-18-vr4 through wu-ftpd-2.4.2-beta-18-vr15 wu-ftpd-2.4.2-vr16 and wu-ftpd-2.4.2-vr17 wu-ftpd-2.5.0 BeroFTPD, all present versions Other derivatives of wu-ftpd may be effected. See the workarrounds (section 3.3) to determine if a derivative is vulnerable. Versions know to be not effected are: NcFTPd, all versions. wu-ftpd-2.4.2 (final, from Academ) All Washington University versions. (Please note: ALL versions of WU-FTPD prior to wu-ftpd-2.4.2-beta-18-vr10 including all WU versions, and all Academ 2.4.1 and 2.4.2 betas, are vulnerable to a remote user root-leveraging attack. See CERT Advisory CA-99-03 'FTP Buffer Overflows' at http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-03-FTP-Buffer-Overflows.html and section 3.2) 3.2 Upgrade to latest wu-ftpd and apply patch The latest version of wu-ftpd from the WU-FTPD Development Group is 2.5.0; sites running earlier versions should upgrade to this version as soon as possible. The WU-FTPD Development Group has a patch available which corrects this vulnerabililty. The patch is available directly from the WU-FTPD Development Group's primary distribution site, and will be propogating to its mirrors shortly. Several other patches to version 2.5.0 are also available. The WU-FTPD Development Group recommends all available patches be applied. Patches for version 2.5.0 are available at the primary distribution site: ftp://ftp.wu-ftpd.org/pub/wu-ftpd/quickfixes/apply_to_2.5.0/ The following patches are available: CRITICAL-SECURITY.PATCH [ End WU-FTPD Development Group Advisory ]

CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of WU-FTPD Development Group for the information contained in this bulletin.

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UCRL-MI-119788
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