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FreeBSD-SA-00:51                                           Security Advisory

                                                                FreeBSD, Inc.



Topic:          mailman port allows local root compromise



Category:       ports

Module:         mailman

Announced:      2000-09-13

Affects:        Ports collection.

Corrected:      2000-08-05

Credits: 

Vendor status:  Updated version released.

FreeBSD only:   NO



I.   Background



Mailman is a mailing list manager.



II.  Problem Description



The mailman port, versions prior to 2.0b5, contained several

locally exploitable vulnerabilities which could be used to gain root

privileges.



The mailman port is not installed by default, nor is it "part of

FreeBSD" as such: it is part of the FreeBSD ports collection, which

contains over 3800 third-party applications in a ready-to-install

format. The ports collections shipped with FreeBSD 4.1 and 3.5.1

contain this problem since it was discovered after the releases.



FreeBSD makes no claim about the security of these third-party

applications, although an effort is underway to provide a security

audit of the most security-critical ports.



III. Impact



Unprivileged users can obtain root privileges on the local system.



If you have not chosen to install the mailman port/package, then

your system is not vulnerable to this problem.



IV.  Workaround



Deinstall the mailman port/package, if you have installed it.



V.   Solution



One of the following:



1) Upgrade your entire ports collection and rebuild the mailman port.



2) Deinstall the old package and install a new package dated after the

correction date, obtained from:



http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz



NOTE: It may be several days before updated packages are available.



3) download a new port skeleton for the listmanager port from:



http://www.freebsd.org/ports/



and use it to rebuild the port.



4) Use the portcheckout utility to automate option (3) above. The

portcheckout port is available in /usr/ports/devel/portcheckout or the

package can be obtained from:



http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz



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