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FreeBSD-SA-00:51                                           Security Advisory
                                                                FreeBSD, Inc.

Topic:          mailman port allows local root compromise

Category:       ports
Module:         mailman
Announced:      2000-09-13
Affects:        Ports collection.
Corrected:      2000-08-05
Credits:	
Vendor status:  Updated version released.
FreeBSD only:   NO

I.   Background

Mailman is a mailing list manager.

II.  Problem Description

The mailman port, versions prior to 2.0b5, contained several
locally exploitable vulnerabilities which could be used to gain root
privileges.

The mailman port is not installed by default, nor is it "part of
FreeBSD" as such: it is part of the FreeBSD ports collection, which
contains over 3800 third-party applications in a ready-to-install
format. The ports collections shipped with FreeBSD 4.1 and 3.5.1
contain this problem since it was discovered after the releases.

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

Unprivileged users can obtain root privileges on the local system.

If you have not chosen to install the mailman port/package, then
your system is not vulnerable to this problem.

IV.  Workaround

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

V.   Solution

One of the following:

1) Upgrade your entire ports collection and rebuild the mailman port.

2) Deinstall the old package and install a new package dated after the
correction date, obtained from:

ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/mail/mailman-2.0b5.tgz

NOTE: It may be several days before updated packages are available.

3) download a new port skeleton for the listmanager 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:

ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-3-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-4-stable/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/alpha/packages-5-current/devel/portcheckout-2.0.tgz

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