The automount service autofs was updated to prevent a potential privilege escalation via interpreter load path for program-based automount maps. (bsc#917977 CVE-2014-8169)

It was found that program-based automounter maps that used interpreted languages such as Python would use standard environment variables to locate and load modules of those languages. A local attacker could potentially use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the system.
(CVE-2014-8169)

Note: This issue has been fixed by adding the 'AUTOFS_' prefix to the affected environment variables so that they are not used to subvert the system. A configuration option ('force_standard_program_map_env') to override this prefix and to use the environment variables without the prefix has been added. In addition, warnings have been added to the manual page and to the installed configuration file. Now, by default the standard variables of the program map are provided only with the prefix added to its name.

Bug fixes :

  - If the 'ls *' command was executed before a valid mount,     the autofs program failed on further mount attempts     inside the mount point, whether the mount point was     valid or not. While attempting to mount, the 'ls *'     command of the root directory of an indirect mount was     executed, which led to an attempt to mount '*', causing     it to be added to the negative map entry cache. This bug     has been fixed by checking for and not adding '*' while     updating the negative map entry cache.

  - The autofs program by design did not mount host map     entries that were duplicate exports in an NFS server     export list. The duplicate entries in a multi-mount map     entry were recognized as a syntax error and autofs     refused to perform mounts when the duplicate entries     occurred. Now, autofs has been changed to continue     mounting the last seen instance of the duplicate entry     rather than fail, and to report the problem in the log     files to alert the system administrator.

  - The autofs program did not recognize the yp map type in     the master map. This was caused by another change in the     master map parser to fix a problem with detecting the     map format associated with mapping the type in the     master map. The change led to an incorrect length for     the type comparison of yp maps that resulted in a match     operation failure. This bug has been fixed by correcting     the length which is used for the comparison.

  - The autofs program did not update the export list of the     Sun-format maps of the network shares exported from an     NFS server. This happened due to a change of the     Sun-format map parser leading to the hosts map update to     stop working on the map re-read operation. The bug has     been now fixed by selectively preventing this type of     update only for the Sun-formatted maps. The updates of     the export list on the Sun-format maps are now visible     and refreshing of the export list is no longer supported     for the Sun-formatted hosts map.

  - Within changes made for adding of the Sun-format maps,     an incorrect check was added that caused a segmentation     fault in the Sun-format map parser in certain     circumstances. This has been now fixed by analyzing the     intent of the incorrect check and changing it in order     to properly identify the conditions without causing a     fault.

  - A bug in the autofs program map lookup module caused an     incorrect map format type comparison. The incorrect     comparison affected the Sun-format program maps where it     led to the unused macro definitions. The bug in the     comparison has been fixed so that the macro definitions     are not present for the Sun-format program maps.

The remote MiracleLinux 4 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the AXSA:2015-269:02 advisory.

    autofs is a daemon which automatically mounts filesystems when you use     them, and unmounts them later when you are not using them.  This can     include network filesystems, CD-ROMs, floppies, and so forth.
    Security issues fixed with this release:
    CVE-2014-8169     Fixed bugs:
    * If the ls * command was executed before a valid mount, the autofs program     failed on further mount attempts inside the mount point, whether the mount point     was valid or not. While attempting to mount, the ls * command of the root     directory of an indirect mount was executed, which led to an attempt to mount
    *, causing it to be added to the negative map entry cache. This bug has been     fixed with this update.
    * The autofs program by design did not mount host map entries that were     duplicate exports in an NFS server export list. The duplicate entries in a     multi-mount map entry were recognized as a syntax error and autofs refused to     perform mounts when the duplicate entries occurred. With this update, fixed the problem.
    * The autofs program did not recognize the yp map type in the master map. This     was caused by another change in the master map parser to fix a problem with     detecting the map format associated with mapping the type in the master map. The     change led to an incorrect length for the type comparison of yp maps that     resulted in a match operation failure. This bug has been fixed by correcting the     length which is used for the comparison.
    * The autofs program did not update the export list of the Sun-format maps of     the network shares exported from an NFS server. This happened due to a change of     the Sun-format map parser leading to the hosts map update to stop working on the     map re-read operation. The bug has been now fixed by selectively preventing this     type of update only for the Sun-formatted maps.
    * Within changes made for adding of the Sun-format maps, an incorrect check was     added that caused a segmentation fault in the Sun-format map parser in certain     circumstances. The bug was fixed with this update.
    * A bug in the autofs program map lookup module caused an incorrect map format     type comparison. The incorrect comparison affected the Sun-format program maps     where it led to the unused macro definitions. With this update, fixed it.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the MiracleLinux security advisory.

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

Updated autofs packages that fix one security issue and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

The autofs utility controls the operation of the automount daemon. The daemon automatically mounts file systems when in use and unmounts them when they are not busy.

It was found that program-based automounter maps that used interpreted languages such as Python would use standard environment variables to locate and load modules of those languages. A local attacker could potentially use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the system.
(CVE-2014-8169)

Note: This issue has been fixed by adding the 'AUTOFS_' prefix to the affected environment variables so that they are not used to subvert the system. A configuration option ('force_standard_program_map_env') to override this prefix and to use the environment variables without the prefix has been added. In addition, warnings have been added to the manual page and to the installed configuration file. Now, by default the standard variables of the program map are provided only with the prefix added to its name.

Red Hat would like to thank the Georgia Institute of Technology for reporting this issue.

Bug fixes :

* If the 'ls *' command was executed before a valid mount, the autofs program failed on further mount attempts inside the mount point, whether the mount point was valid or not. While attempting to mount, the 'ls *' command of the root directory of an indirect mount was executed, which led to an attempt to mount '*', causing it to be added to the negative map entry cache. This bug has been fixed by checking for and not adding '*' while updating the negative map entry cache.
(BZ#1163957)

* The autofs program by design did not mount host map entries that were duplicate exports in an NFS server export list. The duplicate entries in a multi-mount map entry were recognized as a syntax error and autofs refused to perform mounts when the duplicate entries occurred. Now, autofs has been changed to continue mounting the last seen instance of the duplicate entry rather than fail, and to report the problem in the log files to alert the system administrator.
(BZ#1124083)

* The autofs program did not recognize the yp map type in the master map. This was caused by another change in the master map parser to fix a problem with detecting the map format associated with mapping the type in the master map. The change led to an incorrect length for the type comparison of yp maps that resulted in a match operation failure.
This bug has been fixed by correcting the length which is used for the comparison. (BZ#1153130)

* The autofs program did not update the export list of the Sun-format maps of the network shares exported from an NFS server. This happened due to a change of the Sun-format map parser leading to the hosts map update to stop working on the map re-read operation. The bug has been now fixed by selectively preventing this type of update only for the Sun-formatted maps. The updates of the export list on the Sun-format maps are now visible and refreshing of the export list is no longer supported for the Sun-formatted hosts map. (BZ#1156387)

* Within changes made for adding of the Sun-format maps, an incorrect check was added that caused a segmentation fault in the Sun-format map parser in certain circumstances. This has been now fixed by analyzing the intent of the incorrect check and changing it in order to properly identify the conditions without causing a fault. (BZ#1175671)

* A bug in the autofs program map lookup module caused an incorrect map format type comparison. The incorrect comparison affected the Sun-format program maps where it led to the unused macro definitions.
The bug in the comparison has been fixed so that the macro definitions are not present for the Sun-format program maps. (BZ#1201195)

Users of autofs are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

autofs was updated to fix one security issue.

This security issue was fixed :

  - CVE-2014-8169: Prevent potential privilege escalation     via interpreter load path for program-based automount     maps (bnc#917977).

The update package also includes non-security fixes. See advisory for details.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Updated autofs packages that fix one security issue, several bugs, and add one enhancement are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

The autofs utility controls the operation of the automount daemon. The daemon automatically mounts file systems when in use and unmounts them when they are not busy.

It was found that program-based automounter maps that used interpreted languages such as Python used standard environment variables to locate and load modules of those languages. A local attacker could potentially use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the system.
(CVE-2014-8169)

Note: This issue has been fixed by adding the 'AUTOFS_' prefix to the affected environment variables so that they are not used to subvert the system. A configuration option ('force_standard_program_map_env') to override this prefix and to use the environment variables without the prefix has been added. In addition, warnings have been added to the manual page and to the installed configuration file. Now, by default the standard variables of the program map are provided only with the prefix added to its name.

Red Hat would like to thank the Georgia Institute of Technology for reporting this issue.

Notably, this update fixes the following bugs :

* When the 'ls *' command was run in the root of an indirect mount, autofs attempted to literally mount the wildcard character (*) causing it to be added to the negative cache. If done before a valid mount, autofs then failed on further mount attempts inside the mount point, valid or not. This has been fixed, and wildcard map entries now function in the described situation. (BZ#1166457)

* When autofs encountered a syntax error consisting of a duplicate entry in a multimap entry, it reported an error and did not mount the map entry. With this update, autofs has been amended to report the problem in the log to alert the system administrator and use the last seen instance of the duplicate entry rather than fail. (BZ#1205600)

* In the ldap and sss lookup modules, the map reading functions did not distinguish between the 'no entry found' and 'service not available' errors. Consequently, when the 'service not available' response was returned from a master map read, autofs did not update the mounts. An 'entry not found' return does not prevent the map update, so the ldap and sss lookup modules were updated to distinguish between these two returns and now work as expected. (BZ#1233065)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancement :

* The description of the configuration parameter map_hash_table_size was missing from the autofs.conf(5) man page and its description in the configuration file comments was insufficient. A description of the parameter has been added to autofs.conf(5), and the configuration file comments have been updated. (BZ#1238573)

All autofs users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues and add this enhancement.

It was discovered that autofs incorrectly filtered environment variables when using program maps. When program maps were configured, a local user could use this issue to escalate privileges.

This update changes the default behaviour by adding a prefix to environment variables. Sites using program maps will need to adapt to the new variable names, or revert to the previous names by using a new configuration option called FORCE_STANDARD_PROGRAM_MAP_ENV.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ELSA-2015-1344 advisory.

    [5.0.5-113.0.1]
    - add autofs-5.0.5-lookup-mounts.patch [Orabug:12658280] (Bert Barbe)       use tcp instead of udp

    [5.0.5-113]
    - bz1201195 - autofs: MAPFMT_DEFAULT is not macro in lookup_program.c
      - fix macro usage in lookup_program.c.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1201195

    [5.0.5-112]
    - bz1124083 - Autofs stopped mounting /net/hostname/mounts after seeing duplicate       exports in the NFS server
      - fix use after free in patch to handle duplicate in multi mounts.
      - change log messages to try and make them more sensible.
    - fix log entry for rev 5.0.5-111 below.
    - Related: rhbz#1124083

    [5.0.5-111]
    - bz1153130 - autofs-5.0.5-109 with upgrade to RHEL 6.6 no longer recognizes       +yp: in auto.master
      - fix fix master map type check.
    - bz1156387 - autofs /net maps do not refresh list of shares exported on the       NFS server
      - fix typo in update_hosts_mounts().
      - fix hosts map update on reload.
    - bz1160446 - priv escalation via interpreter load path for program based       automount maps
      - add a prefix to program map stdvars.
      - add config option to force use of program map stdvars.
    - bz1175671 - automount segment fault in parse_sun.so for negative parser tests
      - fix incorrect check in parse_mount().
    - bz1124083 - Autofs stopped mounting /net/hostname/mounts after seeing duplicate       exports in the NFS server
      - fix fix map entry duplicate offset detection (dependednt patch).
      - handle duplicates in multi mounts.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1153130 rhbz#1156387 rhbz#1160446 rhbz#1175671 rhbz#1124083

    [5.0.5-110]
    - bz1163957 - Autofs unable to mount indirect after attempt to mount wildcard
      - make negative cache update consistent for all lookup modules.
      - ensure negative cache isn't updated on remount.
      - dont add wildcard to negative cache.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1163957

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

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

It was found that program-based automounter maps that used interpreted languages such as Python used standard environment variables to locate and load modules of those languages. A local attacker could potentially use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the system.
(CVE-2014-8169)

Note: This issue has been fixed by adding the 'AUTOFS_' prefix to the affected environment variables so that they are not used to subvert the system. A configuration option ('force_standard_program_map_env') to override this prefix and to use the environment variables without the prefix has been added. In addition, warnings have been added to the manual page and to the installed configuration file. Now, by default the standard variables of the program map are provided only with the prefix added to its name.

Notably, this update fixes the following bugs :

  - When the 'ls *' command was run in the root of an     indirect mount, autofs attempted to literally mount the     wildcard character (*) causing it to be added to the     negative cache. If done before a valid mount, autofs     then failed on further mount attempts inside the mount     point, valid or not. This has been fixed, and wildcard     map entries now function in the described situation.

  - When autofs encountered a syntax error consisting of a     duplicate entry in a multimap entry, it reported an     error and did not mount the map entry. With this update,     autofs has been amended to report the problem in the log     to alert the system administrator and use the last seen     instance of the duplicate entry rather than fail.

  - In the ldap and sss lookup modules, the map reading     functions did not distinguish between the 'no entry     found' and 'service not available' errors. Consequently,     when the 'service not available' response was returned     from a master map read, autofs did not update the     mounts. An 'entry not found' return does not prevent the     map update, so the ldap and sss lookup modules were     updated to distinguish between these two returns and now     work as expected.

In addition, this update adds the following enhancement :

  - The description of the configuration parameter     map_hash_table_size was missing from the autofs.conf(5)     man page and its description in the configuration file     comments was insufficient. A description of the     parameter has been added to autofs.conf(5), and the     configuration file comments have been updated.

The remote MiracleLinux 7 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the AXSA:2015-744:01 advisory.

    autofs is a daemon which automatically mounts filesystems when you use     them, and unmounts them later when you are not using them.  This can     include network filesystems, CD-ROMs, floppies, and so forth.
    Security issues fixed with this release:
    CVE-2014-8169     automount 5.0.8, when a program map uses certain interpreted     languages, uses the calling user's USER and HOME environment variable     values instead of the values for the user used to run the mapped     program, which allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan     horse program in the user home directory.
    Fixed bugs:
    * When the ls * command was run in the root of an indirect mount, autofs attempted to literally mount     the wildcard character (*) causing it to be added to the negative cache. If done before a valid mount,     autofs then failed on further mount attempts inside the mount point, valid or not. This has been fixed,     and wildcard map entries now function in the described situation.
    * When autofs encountered a syntax error consisting of a duplicate entry in a multimap entry, it reported     an error and did not mount the map entry. With this update, autofs has been amended to report the problem     in the log to alert the system administrator and use the last seen instance of the duplicate entry rather     than fail.
    * In the ldap and sss lookup modules, the map reading functions did not distinguish between the no entry     found and service not available errors. Consequently, when the service not available response was     returned from a master map read, autofs did not update the mounts. An entry not found return does not     prevent the map update, so the ldap and sss lookup modules were updated to distinguish between these two     returns and now work as expected.
    Enhancements:
    * The description of the configuration parameter map_hash_table_size was missing from the autofs.conf(5)     man page and its description in the configuration file comments was insufficient. A description of the     parameter has been added to autofs.conf(5), and the configuration file comments have been updated.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the MiracleLinux security advisory.

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

The remote Oracle Linux 7 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ELSA-2015-2417 advisory.

    [5.0.7-54.0.1]
    - add autofs-5.0.5-lookup-mounts.patch [Orabug:12658280] (Bert Barbe)

    [1:5.0.7-54]
    - bz1263508 - Heavy program map usage can lead to a hang
      - fix out of order call in program map lookup.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1263508

    [1:5.0.7-53]
    - bz1238573 - RFE: autofs MAP_HASH_TABLE_SIZE description
      - update map_hash_table_size description.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1238573

    [1:5.0.7-52]
    - bz1233069 - Direct map does not expire if map is initially empty
      - update patch to fix expiry problem.
    - Related: rhbz#1233069

    [1:5.0.7-51]
    - bz1233065 - 'service autofs reload' does not reloads new mounts only       when 'sss' or 'ldap' is used in '/etc/nsswitch.conf' file
      - init qdn before use in get_query_dn().
      - fix left mount count return from umount_multi_triggers().
      - fix return handling in sss lookup module.
      - move query dn calculation from do_bind() to do_connect().
      - make do_connect() return a status.
      - make connect_to_server() return a status.
      - make find_dc_server() return a status.
      - make find_server() return a status.
      - fix return handling of do_reconnect() in ldap module.
    - bz1233067 - autofs is performing excessive direct mount map re-reads
      - fix direct mount stale instance flag reset.
    - bz1233069 - Direct map does not expire if map is initially empty
      - fix direct map expire not set for initial empty map.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1233065 rhbz#1233067 rhbz#1233069

    [1:5.0.7-50]
    - bz1218045 - Similar but unrelated NFS exports block proper mounting of       'parent' mount point
      - remove unused offset handling code.
      - fix mount as you go offset selection.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1218045

    [1:5.0.7-49]
    - bz1166457 - Autofs unable to mount indirect after attempt to mount wildcard
      - make negative cache update consistent for all lookup modules.
      - ensure negative cache isn't updated on remount.
      - dont add wildcard to negative cache.
    - bz1162041 - priv escalation via interpreter load path for program based       automount maps
      - add a prefix to program map stdvars.
      - add config option to force use of program map stdvars.
    - bz1161474 - automount segment fault in parse_sun.so for negative parser tests
      - fix incorrect check in parse_mount().
    - bz1205600 - Autofs stopped mounting /net/hostname/mounts after seeing duplicate       exports in the NFS server
      - handle duplicates in multi mounts.
    - bz1201582 - autofs: MAPFMT_DEFAULT is not macro in lookup_program.c
      - fix macro usage in lookup_program.c.
    - Resolves: rhbz#1166457 rhbz#1162041 rhbz#1161474 rhbz#1205600 rhbz#1201582

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

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

It was found that program-based automounter maps that used interpreted languages such as Python would use standard environment variables to locate and load modules of those languages. A local attacker could potentially use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the system.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
81764	openSUSE Security Update : autofs (openSUSE-2015-220)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	3/12/2015	1/19/2021	medium
85189	Scientific Linux Security Update : autofs on SL6.x i386/x86_64 (20150722)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/4/2015	1/14/2021	medium
289334	MiracleLinux 4 : autofs-5.0.5-113.AXS4 (AXSA:2015-269:02)	Nessus	Miracle Linux Local Security Checks	1/16/2026	1/16/2026	high
84939	RHEL 6 : autofs (RHSA-2015:1344)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	7/23/2015	2/5/2021	medium
84084	SUSE SLED12 / SLES12 Security Update : autofs (SUSE-SU-2015:1020-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	6/10/2015	1/6/2021	medium
85013	CentOS 6 : autofs (CESA-2015:1344)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	7/28/2015	1/4/2021	medium
86990	RHEL 7 : autofs (RHSA-2015:2417)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	11/20/2015	10/24/2019	medium
83111	Ubuntu 14.10 : autofs vulnerability (USN-2579-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	4/28/2015	1/19/2021	medium
85100	Oracle Linux 6 : autofs (ELSA-2015-1344)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/30/2015	4/29/2025	high
87158	CentOS 7 : autofs (CESA-2015:2417)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	12/2/2015	1/4/2021	medium
87549	Scientific Linux Security Update : autofs on SL7.x x86_64 (20151119)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	12/22/2015	1/14/2021	medium
290094	MiracleLinux 7 : autofs-5.0.7-54.el7 (AXSA:2015-744:01)	Nessus	Miracle Linux Local Security Checks	1/16/2026	1/16/2026	high
87040	Oracle Linux 7 : autofs (ELSA-2015-2417)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	11/24/2015	4/29/2025	high
87352	Amazon Linux AMI : autofs (ALAS-2015-626)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	12/15/2015	4/18/2018	medium

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