RHEL 6 / 7 : ntp (RHSA-2014:2024)

high Nessus Plugin ID 80160

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Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing one or more security updates for ntp.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 6 / 7 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2014:2024 advisory.

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is used to synchronize a computer's time with a referenced time source.

Multiple buffer overflow flaws were discovered in ntpd's crypto_recv(), ctl_putdata(), and configure() functions. A remote attacker could use either of these flaws to send a specially crafted request packet that could crash ntpd or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the ntp user. Note: the crypto_recv() flaw requires non-default configurations to be active, while the ctl_putdata() flaw, by default, can only be exploited via local attackers, and the configure() flaw requires additional authentication to exploit. (CVE-2014-9295)

It was found that ntpd automatically generated weak keys for its internal use if no ntpdc request authentication key was specified in the ntp.conf configuration file. A remote attacker able to match the configured IP restrictions could guess the generated key, and possibly use it to send ntpdc query or configuration requests. (CVE-2014-9293)

It was found that ntp-keygen used a weak method for generating MD5 keys.
This could possibly allow an attacker to guess generated MD5 keys that could then be used to spoof an NTP client or server. Note: it is recommended to regenerate any MD5 keys that had explicitly been generated with ntp-keygen; the default installation does not contain such keys).
(CVE-2014-9294)

A missing return statement in the receive() function could potentially allow a remote attacker to bypass NTP's authentication mechanism.
(CVE-2014-9296)

All ntp users are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which contains backported patches to resolve these issues. After installing the update, the ntpd daemon will restart automatically.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the RHEL ntp package based on the guidance in RHSA-2014:2024.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 80160

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2014-2024.nasl

Version: 1.25

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 12/22/2014

Updated: 4/15/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Important

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 5.9

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2014-9295

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2014-9293

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ntp, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:sntp, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ntpdate, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ntp-perl, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ntp-doc, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 12/20/2014

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/19/2014

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2014-9293, CVE-2014-9294, CVE-2014-9295, CVE-2014-9296

BID: 71757, 71758, 71761, 71762

CWE: 119, 338, 390

RHSA: 2014:2024

Detections

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