Red Hat Patches Leak That Gave Local Users Root Privileges

Red Hat has released security updates for two vulnerabilities allowing a local user to the file / etc / passwd could adapt and root privileges could get. The vulnerabilities are in the libuser library, which is standard on all Red Hat-derived Linux distributions is present.

During an internal investigation discovered security company Qualys different libuser-related vulnerabilities. The first vulnerability is present in the "user helper" and a local user allows to edit the file / etc / passwd. This would be possible to cause a local denial of service. Qualys does not exclude that it is possible for a local user to gain root privileges on the system, but to make the company failed an exploit that realizes this. That did succeed with a second leak in libuser itself.This allows a local user to gain root privileges.

Red Hat released yesterday updates to the vulnerabilities of, after being informed in advance. However, there is a commotion about the publication of Qualys. The company would information about the vulnerabilities, including exploits, published before the Red Hat updates to users could be deployed. Something for discussion on the oss-sec mailing list and Reddit made.

Experts: Linux system Reboot After Installation GHOST Patch

Tuesday released a patch for a critical vulnerability in Linux, but after installing the system must be restarted, as experts warn. Through the GHOST vulnerability an attacker can take over vulnerable systems in certain cases. Still, the leak can not be compared with other major vulnerabilities as Heartbleed and Shellshock.

Most systems are not vulnerable because, says security expert Robert Graham . Modern software would use a different function and even software that uses the function which the leak can be invoked does so in a way that can not be abused."Even if software will use the vulnerable function is not to say that it is also vulnerable," the expert notes. Also, most systems would not be attacked by the leak and many of the exploits used only locally. Graham says that users also do not have to panic.

He gets applause Jen Ellis security company Rapid7. "Unlike a leak as Heartbleed is not always exploit the problem. The general consensus is that the bug is not easy to abuse," Ellis says. Until now, there would be only one known case that is easy to abuse. Both experts suggest that users of their systems after installing the patch have to reboot. Without a reboot services that will use the vulnerable library not be restarted.

Linux Systems Vulnerable To Criticism GHOST Leak

There is a critical vulnerability in Linux discovered which virtually all systems since 2000 at risk. Through the leak can take over a remote attacker without valid credentials vulnerable computers. The vulnerability is since November 2000 in the GNU C library.

The GNU C Library, also known as glibc, is an implementation of the standard C library and an important part of Linux.Without this library would be a Linux system does not work. The leak has researchers named GHOST received because it through the gethostbyname function is to call. An attacker could then execute arbitrary code on the system.

On May 21, 2013 between the releases of glibc 2.17 and glibc 2:18 there appeared a solution to the leak. However, the fix was not classified as a security advisory, making the most stable distributions with long-term support remained exposed, according to security firm Qualys discovered that the vulnerability. This is Debian 7 (wheezy), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 and Ubuntu 12.04.

"GHOST is a remote code execution risk, which makes it very easy for an attacker to compromise a machine. Example, an attacker can send a simple e-mail from a Linux system and automatically get full access to that machine," says Wolfgang Kandek, CTO at Qualys. Administrators and users are advised to install the updates now available from their supplier.