Re: [Re: Amanda multiple vendor local root compromises]

[bmah () CA SANDIA GOV (Bruce A. Mah)]

If memory serves me right, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> On Nov  1, 1999, Brock Tellier <btellier () USA NET> wrote:
>
> > On my system (FreeBSD 3.3-RELEASE + amanda-2.4.1 package included on CD):
>
> > -rwsr-xr-x root/wheel
>
> > And thus ANY user, not just amanda/bin/operator can exploit runtar.
> > Obviously, from the replies I've recieved, this is an error in the package
> > installation, but I assure you that it was entierly automated by
> > /stand/sysinstall and not fooled with by me.

Hmmm.  Just for kicks I deleted my amanda installation and used
sysinstall to install the package from the 3.3-RELEASE CD-ROM (on a
machine running FreeBSD 3.3-RELEASE + KAME 19991018 snapshot):

roosevelt:amanda% pwd
/usr/local/libexec/amanda
roosevelt:amanda% ls -ls rundump runtar
4 -r-sr-x---  1 root  operator  3196 Sep 11 04:54 rundump
4 -r-sr-x---  1 root  operator  4076 Sep 11 04:54 runtar

I'm not saying the original poster didn't see what he thought he saw,
but I don't think the blame for this can be laid on the package
installation or sysinstall either.

> Amanda strongly advises against the use of pre-compiled packages,
> because there are a couple of options hard-coded at build time, some
> of which have to do with the user and group authorized to make use of
> Amanda.  Nevertheless, many vendors insist in releasing such
> pre-compiled packages, often without documenting the options used to
> configure the executables, and users get immensely confused when they
> find some behavior that contradicts the default specified in the
> documentation :-(

In the case of FreeBSD's ports collection (and packages generated from
it), the exact parameters used to configure amanda can be found in:

/usr/ports/misc/amanda24/Makefile

> If you're a security concerned system administrator, you'd better
> build Amanda yourself, so as to be sure to be able to customize all
> the general- and security-related options to your own needs.

Yes.  (Or, alternatively, build using something like the FreeBSD ports
collection to gain some package management features, but verify the
configure- and build-time options before installing, which is what I've
been doing.)

Cheers,

Bruce.

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