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Original issue date: April 24, 1997
Last revised: September 26, 1997
Updated copyright statement

A complete revision history is at the end of this file.

The CERT Coordination Center has received reports of a buffer overflow condition that affects some libraries using the Natural Language Service (NLS) on UNIX systems. By exploiting this vulnerability, any local user can execute arbitrary programs as a privileged user. There is a possibility (with some old libraries) that the vulnerability can be exploited by a remote user.

Exploitation information is publicly available.

The CERT/CC team recommends installing patches when they become available.

We will update this advisory as we receive additional information. Please check advisory files regularly for updates that relate to your site.

I. Description

A buffer overflow condition affects libraries using the Natural Language Service (NLS). The NLS is the component of UNIX systems that provides facilities for customizing the natural language formatting for the system. Examples of the types of characteristics that can be set are language, monetary symbols and delimiters, numeric delimiters, and time formats.

Some libraries that use a particular environment variable associated with the NLS contain a vulnerability in which a buffer overflow condition can be triggered. The particular environment variable involved is NLSPATH on some systems and PATH_LOCALE on others.

It is possible to exploit this vulnerability to attain unauthorized access by supplying carefully crafted arguments to programs that are owned by a privileged user-id and that have setuid or setgid bits set.

Exploit information involving this vulnerability has been made publicly available.

II. Impact

Local users (users with access to an account on the system) are able to execute arbitrary programs as a privileged user without authorization. There is a possibility (with some old libraries) that the vulnerability can be exploited by a remote user.

III. Solution

Install a patch for this problem when one becomes available. Currently, there is no workaround to use in the meantime.

Below is a list of vendors who have provided information about this problem. Details are in Appendix A of this advisory; we will update the appendix as we receive more information. If your vendor's name is not on this list, the CERT/CC did not hear from that vendor. Please contact your vendor directly.

Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI)
Cray Research - A Silicon Graphics Company
Data General Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Hewlett-Packard Company
IBM Corporation
Linux Systems
NEC Corporation
NeXT/Apple
The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO)
Solbourne
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Appendix A - Vendor Information

Below is a list of the vendors who have provided information for this advisory. We will update this appendix as we receive additional information. If you do not see your vendor's name, the CERT/CC did not hear from that vendor. Please contact the vendor directly.

Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI)

No versions of BSD/OS are vulnerable to this problem.

Cray Research - A Silicon Graphics Company

This problem has been resolved with code that is available in released software packages as described in the FIX AVAILABILITY section below.

FIX AVAILABILITY

For each affected product level, the following table identifies the release that contains the fix:
Affected Product Release Levels Containing Fix
UNICOS UNICOS 9.0.2.5
UNICOS 9.2.0.4
UNICOS/mk UNICOS/mk 1.5.1
UNICOS MAX UNICOS MAX 1.3.0.5

RELATED INFORMATION

SPR 704175 POSSIBLE SECURITY PROBLEM IN SETLOCALE

Data General Corporation

We're investigating.

Digital Equipment Corporation

SOURCE:

Digital Equipment Corporation
Software Security Response Team
Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation 1997. All rights reserved.

This reported problem is not present for Digital's ULTRIX or Digital UNIX Operating Systems Software.

Hewlett-Packard Company

HP has completed their testing, HP-UX is not vulnerable.

IBM Corporation

All AIX releases are vulnerable to a variation of this advisory.

AIX 3.2.5

Apply the following fix to your system:

PTFs - U447656 U447671 U447676 U447682 U447705 U447723 (APAR IX67405)

To determine if you have these PTFs on your system, run the following command:

lslpp -lB U447656 U447671 U447676 U447682 U447705 U447723

AIX 4.1

Apply the following fix to your system:

APAR - IX67407

To determine if you have this APAR on your system, run the following command:

instfix -ik IX67407

Or run the following command:

lslpp -h bos.rte.libc

Your version of bos.rte.libc should be 4.1.5.7 or later.

AIX 4.2

Apply the following fixes to your system:

APAR - IX67377 IX65693

To determine if you have these APARs on your system, run the following command:

instfix -ik IX67377 IX65693

Or run the following command:

lslpp -h bos.rte.libc

Your version of bos.rte.libc should be 4.2.0.11 or later.

(APAR IX65693 fixes a problem with the mkgroup command after IX67377 is applied.)

To Order

APARs may be ordered using Electronic Fix Distribution (via FixDist) or from the IBM Support Center. For more information on FixDist, reference URL:

http://service.software.ibm.com/aixsupport/

or send e-mail to aixserv@austin.ibm.com with a subject of "FixDist".

IBM and AIX are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

Linux Systems

Linux systems running older C libraries are vulnerable. To check which C library is being used type

linux% ldd /bin/ls

libc.so.5 => /lib/libc.so.5.3.12

This indicates the machine is using libc 5.3.12.

C libraries older than 5.3.12 (that is libc5.2.18, libc5.0.9 etc) are vulnerable to this bug and you should upgrade the C library. The release versions of libc 5.4.x are immune to this attack.

If you have libc5.3.12 it is insecure unless it is the modified libc5.3.12 shipped with Red Hat 4.1, or as an upgrade on Red Hat 4.0. You can check this with the package manager:

linux# rpm -q libc

libc-5.3.12-17

Indicates you have version 17 of the package. This is the safe one.

Red Hat 4.0 users who have not already upgraded their libc can obtain this package at

ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/old-releases/redhat-4.0/updates/.

NEC Corporation

NEC platforms are not affected by this vulnerability.

NeXT/Apple

No versions of NeXTstep of OpenStep/Mach are vulnerable to this problem.

The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO)

We are investigating this problem and will provide updated information for this advisory when it becomes available.

Solbourne

Solbourne is not vulnerable.

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Not vulnerable.

The CERT Coordination Center staff thanks Wolfgang Ley of DFN-CERT for his input to this advisory and Bruce Ide for drawing our attention to the problem.

UPDATES

There appear to be several slightly different descriptions for the NLS acronym. They are included here for convenience:

National Language Service
National Language Support
Native Language System
Natural Language Service
Natural Language Support

Copyright 1997 Carnegie Mellon University.

Revision History 
Sep. 26, 1997 Updated copyright statement
June 3, 1997  Updates section - added other phrases for the the NLS acronym
              Appendix A - updated Cray Research entry.
May 1, 1997   Section III and Appendix. Updated vendor information
              for Hewlett-Packard Company.
              Acknowledgments - added a name upon receiving
              permission to do so.
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Pages in the Historical section of this site are provided for historical purposes, they are no longer maintained. Links may not work.