Tech Alert Briefing for 3/3/2003

Critical Vulnerability Discovered in Sendmail

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) are both issuing an advisory to heighten awareness of the recently discovered Remote Sendmail Header Processing Vulnerability. Since many financial institutions run sendmail as their default messaging service under Unix or LINUX operating systems, system administrators are encouraged to review their software configurations for sendmail to ensure that the latest releases and patches are in place.

The Remote Sendmail Header Processing Vulnerability allows local and remote users to gain almost complete control of a vulnerable Sendmail server. Attackers gain the ability to execute privileged commands using super-user (root) access/control. This vulnerability can be exploited through a simple e-mail message containing malicious code. Sendmail is the most commonly used Mail Transfer Agent and processes an estimated 50 to 75 percent of all Internet e-mail traffic.The newly discovered vulnerabilty could allow an attacker to install malicious code, run destructive programs and modify or delete files.

Additionally, attackers may gain access to other systemsthru a compromised Sendmail server, depending on local configurations. Sendmail versions 5.2 up to 8.12.8 are known to be vulnerable at this time.

Due to the seriousness of this vulnerability, the NIPC is stronglyrecommending that system administrators who employ Sendmail take thisopportunity to review the security of their Sendmail software and toeither upgrade to Sendmail 8.12.8 or apply the appropriate patch forolder versions as soon as possible.

Patches for the vulnerability are available from Sendmail, from ISS whodiscovered the vulnerability and from vendors whose applicationsincorporate Sendmail code.Check with your vendor for updates.

The primary distribution site for Sendmail is: http://www.sendmail.org

Patches and information are also available from the following sites: The ISS Download center http://www.iss.net/download andCommon Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE) Project http://CVE.mitre.org

The SANS institute is offering a special webinar to discuss the vulnerability featuring one of the ISS researchers who made the initial discovery.



Previous Tech Alerts:
02/06/03Microsoft Releases Cummulative Patch for Internet Explorer Flaws It Lists as Critical
01/26/03The Importance of Applying Patches
01/23/03Microsoft and SUN release slew of Patches
01/14/03New Worms Spreading through Email
12/09/02Microsoft Issues Updated Cumulative Patch for IE
11/13/02New e-greeting tactics pose serious threat
11/01/02Critical patch released for Windows 2000, Windows XP
10/21/02Microsoft Fixes Vulnerabilities: Releases Patches for SQL, Word and Excel
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10/02/02Top 20 List of Internet Security Vulnerabilities Released
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