CERT Advisory CA-99-16 Buffer Overflow in Sun Solstice AdminSuite Daemon
CERT Advisory CA-99-16 Buffer Overflow in Sun Solstice AdminSuite Daemon
CERT Advisory CA-99-16 Buffer Overflow in Sun Solstice AdminSuite Daemon
sadmind
Original release date: December 14, 1999
Last revised: --
Source: CERT/CC
A complete revision history is at the end of this file.
Systems Affected
* Systems that have sadmind installed
I. Description
The sadmind program is installed by default in Solaris 2.5, 2.6, and
7. In Solaris 2.3 and 2.4, sadmind may be installed if the Sun
Solstice Adminsuite packages are installed. The sadmind program is
installed in /usr/sbin. It can be used to coordinate distributed
system administration operations remotely. The sadmind daemon is
started automatically by the inetd daemon whenever a request to
perform a system administration operation is received.
All versions of sadmind are vulnerable to a buffer overflow that can
overwrite the stack pointer within a running sadmind process. Since
sadmind is installed as root, it is possible to execute arbitrary
code with root privileges on a remote machine.
This vulnerability has been discussed in public security forums and is
actively being exploited by intruders.
II. Impact
A remote user may be able to execute arbitrary code with root
privileges on systems running vulnerable versions of sadmind.
III. Solution
Disable sadmind
Remove (or comment) the following line in /etc/inetd.conf:
Even though it will not defend against the attack discussed in this
advisory, it is a good practice to set the security option used to
authenticate requests to a STRONG level, for example:
If you must use sadmind to perform system administration tasks, we
urge you to use this setting.
Appendix A contains information provided by vendors for this advisory.
We will update the appendix as we receive or develop more information.
If you do not see your vendor's name in Appendix A, the CERT/CC did
not hear from that vendor. Please contact your vendor directly.
Appendix A. Vendor Information
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems is currently working on patches to address the issue
discussed in this advisory and recommends disabling sadmind.
_________________________________________________________________
The CERT Coordination Center thanks Sun Microsystems for its help in
providing information for this advisory.
______________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________
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Revision History
December 14, 1999: Initial release
