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                        SuSE Security Announcement



        Package:  lynx-2.8.2 and older

        Date:     Thu Sep 16 21:29:15 CEST 1999

        Affected: all Linux distributions using lynx-2.8.2 and older

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A security hole was discovered in the package mentioned above.

Please update as soon as possible or disable the service if you are using

this software on your SuSE Linux installation(s).



Other Linux distributions or operating systems might be affected as

well, please contact your vendor for information about this issue.



Please note, that that we provide this information on as "as-is" basis only.

There is no warranty whatsoever and no liability for any direct, indirect or

incidental damage arising from this information or the installation of

the update package.

_____________________________________________________________________________



1. Problem Description



  When lynx calls external programs for protocols (e.g. telnet), the

  location is passed unchecked. This can be used to activate commandline

  parameters.

  For example, this reference  [A HREF="telnet://-n.rhosts"]click me[/A]

  would activate the tracefile options on the telnet client, with the

  result, that a .rhosts in the current directory would created or

  overwritten.



2. Impact



  Depending on the external programs called by lynx, files can be created

  or truncated, or even remote commands being executed if e.g. ssh or rsh

  would be configured in lynx.



3. Solution



  Updated the lynx package from our FTP server.

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Here are the md5 checksums of the upgrade packages, please verify these

before installing the new packages:



lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.i386.rpm   fd29230757f76d33e21836965822f7a6  (5.3)

lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.i386.rpm   2fba1f9fcf2c3ad9bbb23f0ea18acecd  (6.0)

lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.alpha.rpm  f706fa71b38721d1d0e1e69700c467a4  (AXP)

lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.i386.rpm   2fba1f9fcf2c3ad9bbb23f0ea18acecd  (6.1)

lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.i386.rpm   18f870d15016f63aa510cc5161c027c2  (6.2)

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You will find the update on our ftp-Server:

  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/5.3/n1/lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.i386.rpm

  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/axp/update/6.1/n1/lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.alpha.rpm

  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.1/n1/lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.i386.rpm

  ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/6.2/n1/lynx-2.8.3dev9-76.i386.rpm



Webpage for patches:

  http://www.suse.de/patches/index.html



or try the following web pages for a list of mirrors:

  http://www.suse.de/ftp.html

  http://www.suse.com/ftp_new.html



______________________________________________________________________________



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______________________________________________________________________________



If you want to report *NEW* security bugs in the SuSE Linux Distribution

please send an email to security@suse.de or call our support line.

You may use pgp with the public key below to ensure confidentiality.

______________________________________________________________________________



  This information is provided freely to everyone interested and may

  be redistributed provided that it is not altered in any way.



Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID

pub  2048/3D25D3D9 1999/03/06 SuSE Security Team