Re: Security hole with WU-FTPD

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#20

From: Bill Unruh
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 00:00

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In <F5p6AI.569@scrum.muc.de> mibu@scrum.muc.de (M. Buchenrieder) writes:
>and manually edit the /etc/passwd file to have an entry with an empty
>password string and no corresponding entry in /etc/shadow, then you'll
>always be able to login without password. Try it. Add a user manually
>and login. I just tested it on a SuSE 5.3 system, using login.c v. 1.4 .
>Using an FTP account to actually access the system is just a way to hide
>the intruder(s) from the eyes of the sysadmin. But the damage is already
>done.

His comment is that while login does not allow a remote root login with no
password, ftp does allow a root login with no password. This is what he
is calling the bug in ftpd.  It certainly is an inconsistancy between
the two.

It is also true that this bug is minor compared to the bug which allowed
a root user to be entered into passwd without a password.

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Message-ID: <77tkol$b3b$1@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>

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<369FBEFB.EB1531B6@gds.ca> <0yRn2.85285$c8.41002764@hme2.newscontent-01.sprint.ca> <8YRn2.250$oD6.15990@burlma1-snr1.gtei.net> <F5n9LH.AnB@scrum.muc.de> <SS3o2.269$oD6.18936@burlma1-snr1.gtei.net> <F5p6AI.569@scrum.muc.de>

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From: unruh@physics.ubc.ca (Bill Unruh)
Subject: Re: Security hole with WU-FTPD
Date: 1999/01/17
Message-ID: <77tkol$b3b$1@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>
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References: <369FBEFB.EB1531B6@gds.ca> <0yRn2.85285$c8.41002764@hme2.newscontent-01.sprint.ca> <8YRn2.250$oD6.15990@burlma1-snr1.gtei.net> <F5n9LH.AnB@scrum.muc.de> <SS3o2.269$oD6.18936@burlma1-snr1.gtei.net> <F5p6AI.569@scrum.muc.de>
Organization: The University of British Columbia
Newsgroups: comp.security.unix,redhat.networking.general,aus.computers.linux,comp.os.linux.networking

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