Gentoo 2508 Published by

An oftpd security update for Gentoo Linux has been released

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200403-08
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http://security.gentoo.org
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Severity: Normal
Title: oftpd DoS vulnerability
Date: March 29, 2004
Bugs: #45738
ID: 200403-08

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Synopsis
=======

A remotely-exploitable overflow exists in oftpd, allowing an attacker to crash the oftpd daemon.



Background
=========

Quote from http://www.time-travellers.org/oftpd/

"oftpd is designed to be as secure as an anonymous FTP server can possibly be. It runs as non-root for most of the time, and uses the Unix chroot() command to hide most of the systems directories from external users - they cannot change into them even if the server is totally compromised! It contains its own directory change code, so that it can run efficiently as a threaded server, and its own directory listing code (most FTP servers execute the system "ls" command to list files)."

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

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Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
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net-ftp/oftpd = 0.3.7

Description
==========

Issuing a port command with a number higher than 255 causes the server to crash. The port command may be issued before any authentication takes place, meaning the attacker does not need to know a valid username and password in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Impact
=====

This exploit causes a denial of service.

Workaround
=========

While a workaround is not currently known for this issue, all users are advised to upgrade to the latest version of the affected package.

Resolution
=========

All users should upgrade to the current version of the affected package:

# emerge sync

# emerge -pv ">=net-ftp/oftpd-0.3.7"
# emerge ">=net-ftp/oftpd-0.3.7"

References
=========

[ 1 ] http://www.time-travellers.org/oftpd/oftpd-dos.html

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.