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Debian DSA-403-1 : kernel-image-2.4.18-1-alpha, kernel-image-2.4.18-1-i386, kernel-source-2.4.18 - local root exploit

high Nessus Plugin ID 15240

Synopsis

The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update.

Description

Recently multiple servers of the Debian project were compromised using a Debian developers account and an unknown root exploit. Forensics revealed a burneye encrypted exploit. Robert van der Meulen managed to decrypt the binary which revealed a kernel exploit. Study of the exploit by the Red Hat and SuSE kernel and security teams quickly revealed that the exploit used an integer overflow in the brk system call. Using this bug it is possible for a userland program to trick the kernel into giving access to the full kernel address space. This problem was found in September by Andrew Morton, but unfortunately that was too late for the 2.4.22 kernel release.

This bug has been fixed in kernel version 2.4.23 for the 2.4 tree and 2.6.0-test6 kernel tree. For Debian it has been fixed in version 2.4.18-14 of the kernel source packages, version 2.4.18-12 of the i386 kernel images and version 2.4.18-11 of the alpha kernel images.

Solution

Upgrade the affected kernel-image-2.4.18-1-alpha, kernel-image-2.4.18-1-i386, and kernel-source-2.4.18 packages.

See Also

http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-403

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 15240

File Name: debian_DSA-403.nasl

Version: 1.22

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 9/29/2004

Updated: 1/4/2021

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 5.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:kernel-image-2.4.18-1-alpha, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:kernel-image-2.4.18-1-i386, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:kernel-source-2.4.18, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:3.0

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Debian/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 12/1/2003

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/1/2003

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2003-0961

BID: 9138

DSA: 403