Debian DSA-1516-1 : dovecot - privilege escalation

medium Nessus Plugin ID 31587

Synopsis

The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update.

Description

Prior to this update, the default configuration for Dovecot used by Debian runs the server daemons with group mail privileges. This means that users with write access to their mail directory on the server (for example, through an SSH login) could read and also delete via a symbolic link mailboxes owned by other users for which they do not have direct access (CVE-2008-1199 ). In addition, an internal interpretation conflict in password handling has been addressed proactively, even though it is not known to be exploitable (CVE-2008-1218 ).

Note that applying this update requires manual action: The configuration setting 'mail_extra_groups = mail' has been replaced with 'mail_privileged_group = mail'. The update will show a configuration file conflict in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf. It is recommended that you keep the currently installed configuration file, and change the affected line. For your reference, the sample configuration (without your local changes) will have been written to /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.dpkg-new.

If your current configuration uses mail_extra_groups with a value different from 'mail', you may have to resort to themail_access_groups configuration directive.

Solution

For the old stable distribution (sarge), no updates are provided. We recommend that you consider upgrading to the stable distribution.

For the stable distribution (etch), these problems have been fixed in version 1.0.rc15-2etch4.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 31587

File Name: debian_DSA-1516.nasl

Version: 1.15

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Debian Local Security Checks

Published: 3/17/2008

Updated: 1/4/2021

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:dovecot, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:4.0

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Debian/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Patch Publication Date: 3/14/2008

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2008-1199, CVE-2008-1218

CWE: 16, 255, 59

DSA: 1516

Detections

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