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                   Red Hat, Inc. Security Advisory



Synopsis:          lpr has a format string security bug, LPRng compat issues, and a race cond.

Advisory ID:       RHSA-2000:066-03

Issue date:        2000-09-25

Updated on:        2000-10-04

Product:           Red Hat Linux

Keywords:          lpr security lpd LPRng

Cross references:  N/A

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1. Topic:



lpr has a format string security bug.  It also mishandles any extension to

the lpd communication protocol, and assumes that the instructions contained

in the extension are a file it should try to print.  It also has a race

condition in the handling of queue interactions that can cause the queue to

wedge.



2. Relevant releases/architectures:



Red Hat Linux 5.0 - i386, alpha

Red Hat Linux 5.1 - i386, alpha, sparc

Red Hat Linux 5.2 - i386, alpha, sparc

Red Hat Linux 6.0 - i386, alpha, sparc

Red Hat Linux 6.1 - i386, alpha, sparc

Red Hat Linux 6.2 - i386, alpha, sparc



3. Problem description:



The old BSD-based lpr which we shipped with Red Hat Linux 5.x and 6.x has a

recently discovered format string bug in its calls to the syslog facility.

While we are not aware of any exploits for this issue, it might be possible

for a user to gain local root access.  For this reason, upgrading to the

new lpr is strongly encouraged.



Additionally, lpr did not properly handle extensions to the lpd protocol.

LPRng, an advanced replacement for lpr included in Red Hat Linux 7, makes

use of extensions.  The lpr included in Red Hat Linux 6.2 and earlier will

not recognize these extensions, and attempt to handle the instructions as

if they were a file to be printed.  As a result, the lpr system sends out

three of the following email messages per print job:



Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 21:36:32 -0400

From: bin 

Reply-To: root@yyyyy.redhat.com

To: xxxx@xxxxxx.redhat.com

Subject: lp printer job "(stdin)"



Your printer job ((stdin))

was not printed because the daemon could not stat the file



Additionaly, a race condition exists in the contention for the lock file,

making it posible for the queue to get into a wedged state.



These problems are now fixed.



4. Solution:



For each RPM for your particular architecture, run:



rpm -Fvh [filename]



where filename is the name of the RPM.



Additionally, after upgrading, you will want to restart your "lpd" service

by executing the following as root:



/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd restart



If you do not need printing at all on your system, we recommend you remove

the lpr print system:



/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd stop

rpm -e lpr



5. Bug IDs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla for more info):



16032 - LPRng lpd/BSD lpd generate stat errors in LPRng->BSD queue interactions.

11740 - Race condition in locking for LPD

16725 - BSD lpr 0.50-5 Errata Tracking Bug





6. RPMs required:



Red Hat Linux 5.2:



alpha:

http://updates.redhat.com/5.2/alpha/lpr-0.50-7.alpha.rpm



sparc:

http://updates.redhat.com/5.2/sparc/lpr-0.50-7.sparc.rpm



i386:

http://updates.redhat.com/5.2/i386/lpr-0.50-7.i386.rpm



sources:

http://updates.redhat.com/5.2/SRPMS/lpr-0.50-7.src.rpm



Red Hat Linux 6.2:



alpha:

http://updates.redhat.com/6.2/alpha/lpr-0.50-7.alpha.rpm



sparc:

http://updates.redhat.com/6.2/sparc/lpr-0.50-7.sparc.rpm



i386:

http://updates.redhat.com/6.2/i386/lpr-0.50-7.i386.rpm



sources:

http://updates.redhat.com/6.2/SRPMS/lpr-0.50-7.src.rpm



7. Verification:



MD5 sum                           Package Name

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

8320299c73f4fb86ba0ff8738eb363b5  5.2/SRPMS/lpr-0.50-7.src.rpm

ed03f53623add36f3b6da694c49c89c2  5.2/alpha/lpr-0.50-7.alpha.rpm

bf72425f9ddb0f8d9e2643fbea360f23  5.2/i386/lpr-0.50-7.i386.rpm

cc2da623757572ed07ab4d88c57422ae  5.2/sparc/lpr-0.50-7.sparc.rpm

f6082e546a94575ab4c147bc9440bdd1  6.2/SRPMS/lpr-0.50-7.src.rpm

eaade33acd33346611b7171c2dd7ea03  6.2/alpha/lpr-0.50-7.alpha.rpm

542a70425ac1b75fb78880fc08f01986  6.2/i386/lpr-0.50-7.i386.rpm

81a48e5d2d91d54d4ea8a4f9c89d5a41  6.2/sparc/lpr-0.50-7.sparc.rpm



These packages are GPG signed by Red Hat, Inc. for security.  Our key

is available at:

    http://www.redhat.com/corp/contact.html



You can verify each package with the following command:

    rpm --checksig  



If you only wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or

tampered with, examine only the md5sum with the following command:

    rpm --checksig --nogpg 



8. References:



Thanks go to Chris Evans  for spotting this in the

OpenBSD lpr CVS commit logs, and verifying the problem existed for Linux as

well.





Copyright(c) 2000 Red Hat, Inc.