Re: Remote Root Hole in FreeBSD Ports

[Horms <horms () vergenet net>]

This notice is in reference to a reported root hole in the FreeBSD port of
perdition and more specifically the library vanessa_logger that it 
requires.

http://www.securityfocus.org/archive/1/247148

First I would like to express great dismay that this was published on a 
public list (BugTraq) without prior consultation with the author (myself) 
or to my knowledge the maintainer of the FreeBSD port, Konstantinos 
Konstantinidis.

There is a string format bug in vanessa_logger 0.0.1 which is what the post
to BugTraq makes reference to. FreeBSD, was at the time of the posting 
shipping this vulnerable version.

vanessa_logger 0.0.2, released on the 29th of June 2001, is not vulnerable
to this exploit. FreeBSD have released a patched version of vanessa_logger
0.0.1 which is also not vulnerable. Users should upgrade to either of 
these.

    vanessa_logger 0.0.2 is available from
    ftp://ftp.vergenet.net/pub/vanessa/vanessa_logger/0.0.2

At this time I would also like to highlight the importance of running
perdition as a non-root user. The --username and --group options enable
perdition to run as non-root for most of a processes life. If these options
are used then the potential risk from any exploits stemming from the string
format bug in vanessa_logger are significantly reduced.

For more information on perdition please see 
http://vergenet.net/linux/perdition/

-- 
Horms
Author of perdition and vanessa_logger

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