FreeBSD : mailman -- generated passwords are poor quality (b3cd00f7-c0c5-452d-87bc-086c5635333e)

high Nessus Plugin ID 19088

Synopsis

The remote FreeBSD host is missing one or more security-related updates.

Description

Florian Weimer wrote :

Mailman 2.1.5 uses weak auto-generated passwords for new subscribers.
These passwords are assigned when members subscribe without specifying their own password (either by email or the web frontend). Knowledge of this password allows an attacker to gain access to the list archive even though she's not a member and the archive is restricted to members only. [...]

This means that only about 5 million different passwords are ever generated, a number that is in the range of brute-force attacks -- you only have to guess one subscriber address (which is usually not that hard).

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?150d1b19

http://www.nessus.org/u?000da008

http://www.nessus.org/u?7f66f91b

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 19088

File Name: freebsd_pkg_b3cd00f7c0c5452d87bc086c5635333e.nasl

Version: 1.16

Type: local

Published: 7/13/2005

Updated: 1/6/2021

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.8

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:ja-mailman, p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:mailman, cpe:/o:freebsd:freebsd

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/FreeBSD/release, Host/FreeBSD/pkg_info

Patch Publication Date: 6/1/2005

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/15/2004

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2004-1143