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Original issue date: July 27, 1990<BR> 
Last revised: September 17, 1997<BR>
Attached Copyright Statement

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

<P>The CERT/CC has received the following report of a vulnerability in the
Hewlett Packard/Apollo Domain/OS system.  This information was provided to
the CERT/CC by the Apollo Systems Division of Hewlett Packard:

<P>This message is to alert administrators of Domain/OS systems of a
serious security problem in all versions of Domain/OS Release sr10.2
and in Beta versions of sr10.3 earlier than bl67. This problem is
NOT present in sr10.1 or earlier versions of Domain/OS. This problem
can be referred to as APR number DE278, other APRs have been filed
against this problem.

<P>There is a known flaw in the file /etc/suid_exec. This file should
be deleted IMMEDIATELY from the /etc directories on all HP/Apollo
nodes AND from all authorized areas on HP/Apollo networks from which
software can be installed.

<P>The files that must be deleted are:

<P>On each node:
<PRE>
//<node>&lt;node&gt;/etc/suid_exec
</PRE>
In each Authorized Area:
<PRE>
<AA>&lt;AA&gt;/install/ri.apollo.os.v.10.2/sys5.3/etc/suid_exec
<AA>&lt;AA&gt;/install/ri.apollo.os.v.10.2/bsd4.3/etc/suid_exec
<AA>&lt;AA&gt;/install/ri.apollo.os.v.10.2.p/sys5.3/etc/suid_exec
<AA>&lt;AA&gt;/install/ri.apollo.os.v.10.2.p/bsd4.3/etc/suid_exec
</PRE>


You must be 'root' or 'locksmith' in order to delete these files.

<P>The removal of these files will resolve the security vulnerability
immediately.

<P>This procedure will require that the install tool should be run with the
-x option ( continue on error - see Installing Software with Apollo's
Release and Installation Tools, Apollo order number 008860-A00, chapter
4) for all subsequent installations until the replacement files have been
obtained. The absence of these files in the authorized areas will
generate an error message during the installation process, and, if the -x
option is not specified when invoking the installation tool, will
terminate the install.

<P>This file is normally required by the Korn Shell to run set-id Korn Shell
scripts, but is a no-op on HP/Apollo systems since Domain/OS does NOT
support the execution of set-id shell scripts. Its purpose is to serve as
the 'agent' described in the manual page for the Korn Shell under
'Execution'. An error during compilation introduced the reported
vulnerability. The removal of this file will have no affect on the
functionality provided by HP/Apollo systems, but will affect the
installation procedure as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

<P>HP/Apollo is creating an incremental software release that will replace
these files with the correctly compiled version of the suid_exec program.
This incremental release will be made available to software maintenance
customers shortly. Those users not on a HP/Apollo maintenance contract
should be able to order the replacement files as HP/Apollo part number
018669-A00, SR10.2 Incremental Software Release. Once installed, the
replacement files will permit normal installation of software. They will
NOT permit set-id shell scripts to be run on Domain/OS installations.

<P>The repaired file will also be available as patch_m0170 on 68000-based
systems, and patch_p0136 on DN10000-based systems. These patches are
scheduled to be on the August patch tape. The problem has already been
addressed in the next release of Domain/OS.

<P>For more information, please contact Hewlett Packard/Apollo Customer
Service.

<P><HR>

<P>Thanks to John G. Griffith of Hewlett Packard for this information.

<P><HR>

<!--#include virtual="/include/footer_nocopyright.html" -->
<P>Copyright 1990 Carnegie Mellon University.</P>

<HR>

Revision History
<PRE>
September 17,1997  Attached Copyright Statement
</PRE>