dovecot 1.0.7 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5, and possibly Fedora, uses world-readable permissions for dovecot.conf, which allows local users to obtain the ssl_key_password parameter value.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2009-0205 advisory.

    - Resolves: #436287, CVE-2008-4870
    - Resolves: #469015, CVE-2008-4577

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

A flaw was found in Dovecot's ACL plug-in. The ACL plug-in treated negative access rights as positive rights, which could allow an attacker to bypass intended access restrictions. (CVE-2008-4577)

A password disclosure flaw was found with Dovecot's configuration file. If a system had the 'ssl_key_password' option defined, any local user could view the SSL key password. (CVE-2008-4870)

Note: This flaw did not allow the attacker to acquire the contents of the SSL key. The password has no value without the key file which arbitrary users should not have read access to.

To better protect even this value, however, the dovecot.conf file now supports the '!include_try' directive. The ssl_key_password option should be moved from dovecot.conf to a new file owned by, and only readable and writable by, root (ie 0600). This file should be referenced from dovecot.conf by setting the '!include_try [/path/to/password/file]' option.

Additionally, this update addresses the following bugs :

  - the dovecot init script -- /etc/rc.d/init.d/dovecot --     did not check if the dovecot binary or configuration     files existed. It also used the wrong pid file for     checking the dovecot service's status. This update     includes a new init script that corrects these errors.

  - the %files section of the dovecot spec file did not     include '%dir %{ssldir}/private'. As a consequence, the     /etc/pki/private/ directory was not owned by dovecot.
    (Note: files inside /etc/pki/private/ were and are owned     by dovecot.) With this update, the missing line has been     added to the spec file, and the noted directory is now     owned by dovecot.

  - in some previously released versions of dovecot, the     authentication process accepted (and passed along     un-escaped) passwords containing characters that had     special meaning to dovecot's internal protocols. This     updated release prevents such passwords from being     passed back, instead returning the error, 'Attempted     login with password having illegal chars'.

Note: dovecot versions previously shipped with Scientific Linux 5 did not allow this behavior. This update addresses the issue above but said issue was only present in versions of dovecot not previously included with Scientific Linux 5.

An updated dovecot package that corrects two security flaws and various bugs is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

Dovecot is an IMAP server for Linux and UNIX-like systems, primarily written with security in mind.

A flaw was found in Dovecot's ACL plug-in. The ACL plug-in treated negative access rights as positive rights, which could allow an attacker to bypass intended access restrictions. (CVE-2008-4577)

A password disclosure flaw was found with Dovecot's configuration file. If a system had the 'ssl_key_password' option defined, any local user could view the SSL key password. (CVE-2008-4870)

Note: This flaw did not allow the attacker to acquire the contents of the SSL key. The password has no value without the key file which arbitrary users should not have read access to.

To better protect even this value, however, the dovecot.conf file now supports the '!include_try' directive. The ssl_key_password option should be moved from dovecot.conf to a new file owned by, and only readable and writable by, root (ie 0600). This file should be referenced from dovecot.conf by setting the '!include_try [/path/to/password/file]' option.

Additionally, this update addresses the following bugs :

* the dovecot init script -- /etc/rc.d/init.d/dovecot -- did not check if the dovecot binary or configuration files existed. It also used the wrong pid file for checking the dovecot service's status. This update includes a new init script that corrects these errors.

* the %files section of the dovecot spec file did not include '%dir %{ssldir}/private'. As a consequence, the /etc/pki/private/ directory was not owned by dovecot. (Note: files inside /etc/pki/private/ were and are owned by dovecot.) With this update, the missing line has been added to the spec file, and the noted directory is now owned by dovecot.

* in some previously released versions of dovecot, the authentication process accepted (and passed along un-escaped) passwords containing characters that had special meaning to dovecot's internal protocols.
This updated release prevents such passwords from being passed back, instead returning the error, 'Attempted login with password having illegal chars'.

Note: dovecot versions previously shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 did not allow this behavior. This update addresses the issue above but said issue was only present in versions of dovecot not previously included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Users of dovecot are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which addresses these vulnerabilities and resolves these issues.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200812-16 (Dovecot: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Several vulnerabilities were found in Dovecot:
    The 'k'     right in the acl_plugin does not work as expected (CVE-2008-4577,     CVE-2008-4578)     The dovecot.conf is world-readable, providing     improper protection for the ssl_key_password setting     (CVE-2008-4870)     A permanent Denial of Service with broken mail     headers is possible (CVE-2008-4907)   Impact :

    These vulnerabilities might allow a remote attacker to cause a Denial     of Service, to circumvent security restrictions or allow local     attackers to disclose the passphrase of the SSL private key.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
180610	Oracle Linux 5 : dovecot (ELSA-2009-0205)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
60524	Scientific Linux Security Update : dovecot on SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	medium
35433	RHEL 5 : dovecot (RHSA-2009:0205)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
35108	GLSA-200812-16 : Dovecot: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2008-4870

medium

Tenable Plugins

high

medium

medium

medium