FreeBSD : sympa -- Inappropriate use of the cookie parameter can be a security threat. This parameter may also not provide sufficient security. (31a7ffb1-a80a-11eb-b159-f8b156c2bfe9)

high Nessus Plugin ID 149073

Synopsis

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

Description

Earlier versions of Sympa require a parameter named cookie in sympa.conf configuration file.

This parameter was used to make some identifiers generated by the system unpredictable. For example, it was used as following :

- To be used as a salt to encrypt passwords stored in the database by the RC4 symmetric key algorithm.

Note that RC4 is no longer considered secure enough and is not supported in the current version of Sympa.

- To prevent attackers from sending crafted messages to achieve XSS and so on in message archives.

There were the following problems with the use of this parameter.

- This parameter, for its purpose, should be different for each installation, and once set, it cannot be changed. As a result, some sites have been operating without setting this parameter. This completely invalidates the security measures described above.

- Even if this parameter is properly set, it may be considered not being strong enough against brute-force attacks.

Solution

Update the affected package.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 149073

File Name: freebsd_pkg_31a7ffb1a80a11ebb159f8b156c2bfe9.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Family: FreeBSD Local Security Checks

Published: 4/29/2021

Updated: 4/29/2021

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:sympa, cpe:/o:freebsd:freebsd

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/FreeBSD/release, Host/FreeBSD/pkg_info

Patch Publication Date: 4/27/2021

Vulnerability Publication Date: 4/27/2021

Detections

Analytics