FreeBSD Security Advisories
2000-Nov-06 15:44 UTC
FreeBSD Ports Security Advisory: FreeBSD-SA-00:65.xfce
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ============================================================================FreeBSD-SA-00:65 Security Advisory FreeBSD, Inc. Topic: xfce allows local X session compromise Category: ports Module: xfce Announced: 2000-11-06 Credits: Nicholas Brawn <nickbrawn@ONETEL.COM> Affects: Ports collection prior to the correction date. Corrected: 2000-11-01 Vendor status: Updated version released FreeBSD only: NO I. Background xfce is a window manager/desktop environment for the X Windows system. II. Problem Description Versions of xfce prior to 3.52 contain a startup script which incorrectly allows access to the X display to all other users on the local system. Such users are able to monitor and control the contents of the display window as well as monitoring input from keyboard and mouse devices. For example, this allows them to monitor passphrases typed into a terminal window, among other possibilities. The xfce port is not installed by default, nor is it "part of FreeBSD" as such: it is part of the FreeBSD ports collection, which contains over 4100 third-party applications in a ready-to-install format. The ports collections shipped with FreeBSD 3.5.1 and 4.1.1 are vulnerable to this problem since it was discovered after the releases, but it was corrected prior to the release of FreeBSD 4.2. FreeBSD makes no claim about the security of these third-party applications, although an effort is underway to provide a security audit of the most security-critical ports. III. Impact Local users can monitor and control the contents of the X display running xfce, as well as input devices such as mice and keyboards. IV. Workaround Deinstall the xfce port/package, if you you have installed it, or remove the lines containing 'xhost +$HOSTNAME' in the following files: /usr/X11R6/etc/xfce/xinitrc /usr/X11R6/etc/xfce/xinitrc.mwm V. Solution One of the following: 1) Upgrade your entire ports collection and rebuild the xfce port. 2) Deinstall the old package and install a new package dated after the correction date, obtained from the following directories: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/x11-wm/xfce-3.12.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/x11-wm/xfce-3.12.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/x11-wm/xfce-3.12.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/x11-wm/xfce-3.12.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/x11-wm/xfce-3.12.tgz 3) download a new port skeleton for the xfce port from: http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ and use it to rebuild the port. 4) Use the portcheckout utility to automate option (3) above. The portcheckout port is available in /usr/ports/devel/portcheckout or the package can be obtained from: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.4 (FreeBSD) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iQCVAwUBOgdCalUuHi5z0oilAQEwxwP+OoowcV51kn3hHjcFWZRk2GAIw/mu6gxP GsLscf2IMAX+dyJG+sNtpzktsrMsIFcv5ADjNjhW+WAqqGhNCosV6cQ8/BNi0+m4 o4Mqyc3jsYBkWzzXd/W6y4EWStup+7/iz/68DPdIUHs1IyfFQ7DiCgWXzZBo8GG1 6muI/XYYm6Q=Ioj2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- This is the moderated mailing list freebsd-announce. The list contains announcements of new FreeBSD capabilities, important events and project milestones. See also the FreeBSD Web pages at http://www.freebsd.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-announce" in the body of the message