GLSA-200410-03 : NetKit-telnetd: buffer overflows in telnet and telnetd

critical Nessus Plugin ID 15424

Synopsis

The remote Gentoo host is missing one or more security-related patches.

Description

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200410-03 (NetKit-telnetd: buffer overflows in telnet and telnetd)

A possible buffer overflow exists in the parsing of option strings by the telnet daemon, where proper bounds checking is not applied when writing to a buffer. Additionaly, another possible buffer overflow has been found by Josh Martin in the handling of the environment variable HOME.
Impact :

A remote attacker sending a specially crafted options string to the telnet daemon could be able to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the telnet daemon, usually root. Furthermore, an attacker could make use of an overlong HOME variable to cause a buffer overflow in the telnet client, potentially leading to the local execution of arbitrary code.
Workaround :

There is no known workaround at this time.

Solution

All NetKit-telnetd users should upgrade to the latest version:
# emerge sync # emerge -pv '>=net-misc/netkit-telnetd-0.17-r4' # emerge '>=net-misc/netkit-telnetd-0.17-r4'

See Also

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=264846

https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/200410-03

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 15424

File Name: gentoo_GLSA-200410-03.nasl

Version: 1.19

Type: local

Published: 10/6/2004

Updated: 1/6/2021

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:gentoo:linux:netkit-telnetd, cpe:/o:gentoo:linux

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Gentoo/release, Host/Gentoo/qpkg-list

Patch Publication Date: 10/5/2004

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2001-0554

GLSA: 200410-03