From: dburcaw@newhope.terraplex.com
To: yellowdog-updates@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
Subject: [yellowdog-updates] Yellow Dog Linux Security Advisory: YDU-20010725-3
Date: 9 Aug 2001 21:14:59 -0000
Yellow Dog Linux Security Announcement
--------------------------------------
Package: minicom
Issue Date: July 25, 2001
Priority: high
Advisory ID: YDU-20010725-3
1. Topic:
Minicom has a security problem that may allow
a malicious user to obtain uucp group or even
root priviledges.
2. Problem:
"Minicom contains a great number of format string abuses in it's usage
of several printf-like varargs functions. The program was never written
with security in mind, and as such even though many format strings bugs
have been fixed in this release, there are many more lurking in the code.
This release solves the security problem by disabling setgid uucp on the
minicom binary."
(from Red Hat security advisory)
3. Solution:
a) Updating via yup...
We suggest that you use the Yellow Dog Update Program (yup)
to keep your system up-to-date. The following command(s) will
automatically retrieve and install the fixed version of
this update onto your system:
yup update minicom
b) Updating manually...
The update can also be retrieved manually from our ftp site
below along with the rpm command that should be used to install
the update. (Please use a mirror site)
ftp://ftp.yellowdoglinux.com/pub/yellowdog/updates/yellowdog-2.0/ppc/RPMS/
rpm -Fvh minicom-1.83.1-8.ppc.rpm
4. Verification
MD5 checksum Package
-------------------------------- ----------------------------
b242547f27a80fba983caf172ee3726c SRPMS/minicom-1.83.1-8.src.rpm
23fcc4fdca513ffff7a399aa8262a0cf ppc/RPMS/minicom-1.83.1-8.ppc.rpm
If you wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or tampered with,
examine the md5sum with the following command: rpm --checksig --nogpg filename
5. Misc.
Terra Soft has setup a moderated mailing list where these security, bugfix, and package
enhancement announcements will be posted. See http://lists.yellowdoglinux.com/ for more
information.
For information regarding the usage of yup, the Yellow Dog Update Program, see
http://devel.yellowdoglinux.com/rp_yup.shtml