Original issue date: August 11, 1994<BR>
Last revised: September 23, 1997<BR>
Updated copyright statement
<P>A complete revision history is at the end of this file.
<P>The CERT Coordination Center has received information about a vulnerability in
the Silicon Graphics, Inc. IRIX operating system, versions 5.1.x and 5.2.
This vulnerability enables users to gain unauthorized root access. To
exploit the vulnerability, a person must log into an account on the system
or have physical access to the system console.
<P>SGI has developed a patch for the vulnerability. Because the vulnerability has
been widely discussed in public forums on the Internet, we recommend that you
install the patch as soon as possible. Section III below contains
instructions for obtaining the patch, along with a workaround you can use
until you install it.
<P>We will update this advisory as we receive additional information.
Please check advisory files regularly for updates that relate to your site.
<P><HR>
<H2>I. Description</H2>
A vulnerability exists in the SGI help system and print manager, enabling
users to get unauthorized root access if they can log into an account on the
system or get physical access to the system console. The vulnerability is
present in the SGI IRIX operating system, versions 5.1.x and 5.2. SGI reports
that the problem will be permanently corrected in a future release of IRIX.
<P>In public discussions, the vulnerability has been referred to by various
names, including clogin, printer manager, and SGI Help.
<H2>II. Impact</H2>
Individuals with accounts on the system or physical access to the system
console can obtain root access.
<H2>III. Solutions</H2>
<H3>A. For IRIX 5.2</H3>
If you are running IRIX 5.2, obtain and install patch65 according
to the instructions provided. These instructions can be found in the
"relnotes.patchSG0000065" file in the patch65.tar file (see below).
<P>To install this patch successfully, you need to have the latest SGI
"inst" program installed (this is available as patch00 or patch34).
<P>SGI has provided instructions for determining if the new install
program is on your system. We have placed these in an appendix
at the end of this advisory.
<P>These patches are available by anonymous FTP from ftp.sgi.com and
from sgigate.sgi.com in the "/security" directory.
<PRE>
Filename patch65.tar
Standard Unix Sum 63059 1220
System V Sum 15843
MD5 af8c120f86daab9df74998b31927e397
Filename patch34.tar.Z<BR>
Standard Unix Sum 11066 15627<BR>
System V Sum 1674 31253<BR>
MD5 2859d0debff715c5beaccd02b6bebded
</PRE>
Patches are available on CD. Contact your nearest SGI service
provider for distribution.
<H3>B. For IRIX 5.1.x</H3>
If you are running versions 5.1.x, SGI recommends that you upgrade to
version 5.2, if possible, and then follow the instructions in Section
III.A. above. If you cannot upgrade to 5.2, see the workaround
instructions in III.C.
<H3>C. Workaround</H3>
If you cannot install the patches or are delayed in obtaining them,
SGI recommends removing the help subsystem using the following
command (as root):
<PRE>
# versions remove sgihelp.sw.eoe
</PRE>
PLEASE NOTE: Removal of this subsystem will affect other
installed software that use the SGI Help system. After
the removal, certain help functions from within applications
will return non-fatal error messages about the missing subsystem.
<P>At a later date, when the patch can be installed on the system,
you will need to re-install the previously removed SGI Help software
prior to installing patch65. This can be found on your original
software distribution (CD labeled as IRIX 5.2). As root, use the
command:
<PRE>
# inst -f /CDROM/dist/sgihelp
Inst> install sgihelp.sw.eoe
Inst> go
</PRE>
The installation documentation provides further information.
<P>
<HR>
<H2>Appendix</H2>
There are three patches related to this issue - patch00, patch34, and patch65.
<P>Patch34 is an update to patch00 which modifies the "inst" program to
be able to handle patch updates. At least one of patch00 or patch34
is required to be installed before installing patch65. To determine
if the new inst program is already installed on your system,
the following command can be issued:
<PRE>
# versions patch\*
I = Installed, R = Removed
Name Date Description
I patchSG0000034 08/10/94 Patch SG0000034
I patchSG0000034.eoe1_sw 08/10/94 IRIX Execution Environment Software
I patchSG0000034.eoe1_sw.unix 08/10/94 IRIX Execution Environment
</PRE>
<P>If patchSG0000000 or patchSG0000034 (as seen above) is loaded,
then it is only necessary to download patch65 as described in the advisory.
This is important since patch34 is rather large (16MB).
<P>Otherwise, download both patch34 and patch65. Install patch34 first,
then patch65. To install patch34, uncompress and untar "patch34.tar.Z"
and follow the instructions in the "README.FIRST" file.
<P>These patches are available by anonymous FTP from ftp.sgi.com
in the "security" directory:
<PRE>
# versions patch\*
I = Installed, R = Removed
Name Date Description
I patchSG0000034 08/10/94 Patch SG0000034
I patchSG0000034.eoe1_sw 08/10/94 IRIX Execution Environment Software
I patchSG0000034.eoe1_sw.unix 08/10/94 IRIX Execution Environment
</PRE>
<HR>
<P>The CERT Coordination Center wishes to thank Silicon Graphics, Inc., for their
cooperation in responding to this problem and members of the AUSCERT and CIAC
response teams for their contributions to this advisory.
<P><HR>
<!--#include virtual="/include/footer_nocopyright.html" -->
<P>Copyright 1994,1996 Carnegie Mellon University.</P>
<HR>
Revision History
<PRE>
Sep. 23, 1997 Updated copyright statement
Aug. 30, 1996 Information previously in the README was inserted
into the advisory.
</PRE>
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