GLSA 200507-13: pam_ldap and nss_ldap: Plain text authentic

A pam_ldap and nss_ldap security update has been released for Gentoo Linux

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200507-13
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: Normal
Title: pam_ldap and nss_ldap: Plain text authentication leak
Date: July 14, 2005
Bugs: #96767
ID: 200507-13

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Synopsis
=======

pam_ldap and nss_ldap fail to restart TLS when following a referral, possibly leading to credentials being sent in plain text.

Background
=========

pam_ldap is a Pluggable Authentication Module which allows authentication against an LDAP directory. nss_ldap is a Name Service Switch module which allows 'passwd', 'group' and 'host' database information to be pulled from LDAP. TLS is Transport Layer Security, a protocol that allows encryption of network communications.

Affected packages
================

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1 sys-auth/nss_ldap lt; 239-r1 gt;= 239-r1
*gt;= 226-r1
2 sys-auth/pam_ldap lt; 178-r1 gt;= 178-r1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
2 affected packages on all of their supported architectures.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Description
==========

Rob Holland of the Gentoo Security Audit Team discovered that pam_ldap and nss_ldap fail to use TLS for referred connections if they are referred to a master after connecting to a slave, regardless of the "ssl start_tls" ldap.conf setting.

Impact
=====

An attacker could sniff passwords or other sensitive information as the communication is not encrypted.

Workaround
=========

pam_ldap and nss_ldap can be set to force the use of SSL instead of TLS.

Resolution
=========

All pam_ldap users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose "gt;=sys-auth/pam_ldap-178-r1"

All nss_ldap users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose sys-auth/nss_ldap

References
=========

[ 1 ] CAN-2005-2069
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-2069

Availability
===========

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website:

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200507-13.xml

Concerns?
========

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
======

Copyright 2005 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0