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FreeBSD-SA-00:66                                           Security Advisory

                                                                FreeBSD, Inc.



Topic:          Client vulnerability in Netscape



Category:       ports

Module:         netscape

Announced:      2000-11-06

Credits:        Michal Zalewski 

Affects:        Ports collection prior to the correction date.

Corrected:      2000-10-29

Vendor status:  Updated version released

FreeBSD only:   NO



I.   Background



Netscape is a popular web browser, available in several versions in

the FreeBSD ports collection.



II.  Problem Description



Versions of netscape prior to 4.76 allow a client-side exploit through

a buffer overflow in html code. A malicious website operator can cause

arbitrary code to be executed by the user running the netscape client.



The netscape ports are not installed by default, nor are they "part of

FreeBSD" as such: they are part of the FreeBSD ports collection, which

contains over 4100 third-party applications in a ready-to-install

format. The ports collections shipped with FreeBSD 3.5.1 and 4.1.1 are

vulnerable to this problem since it was discovered after the release,

but it was corrected prior to the release of FreeBSD 4.2.



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



Remote attackers can execute arbitrary code on the local system by

convincing users to visit a malicious website.



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

system is not vulnerable to this problem.



IV.  Workaround



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



V.   Solution



One of the following:



1) Upgrade your entire ports collection and rebuild the relevant

netscape port.



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

correction date, obtained from the following directories:



http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/www/

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/www/

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/www/

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/www/

http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/www/



Since there are so many variations of the netscape ports in the

FreeBSD ports collection they are not listed separately

here. Localized versions are also available in the respective language

subdirectory.



3) download a new port skeleton for the netscape 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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