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Article #890

Mistake? in security update instructions

#890
From: Brian R. Smith
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 1990 00:36
37 lines
1613 bytes
We just received our Dynix security update quickship, and as part of
the instructions, it says to:

  [...]
  - 'cd /usr/ucb'
  - 'mv chfn chfn.ORIG'
  - 'mv chsh chsh.ORIG'
  - 'mv lpr lpr.ORIG'
  [...]
  - 'cd /usr/bin'
  - 'mv uuq uuq.ORIG'

  - 'cd /bin'
  - 'mv passwd passwd.ORIG'
  [...]

This appears to be WRONG.  If the security holes in these commands are
due to their being set-uid root, this changes NOTHING.  The commands
are still there and still executable.  The must be either removed,
stripped of execute permissions, or, at the very least, stripped of
the set-uid bit.

Because I don't know the nature of the security holes in these
commands, I can't be sure that all of these have that problem.  I am
98% sure that /bin/passwd.ORIG will, though.  The old and the new seem
to be functionally identical, and the old /bin/passwd would not be
affected by a name change (I checked the source), so it must have the
same problems.

If I am wrong, please tell me so.  You're not going to find any *.ORIG
files on my machine, though...

Take care,
--
Brian
brsmith@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science
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From: brsmith@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Mistake? in security update instructions
Keywords: security dynix
Message-ID: <1990Feb7.003641.859@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 90 00:36:41 GMT
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Lines: 37