Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS / 8.10 : vm-builder vulnerability (USN-670-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 37886

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security-related patches.

Description

Mathias Gug discovered that vm-builder improperly set the root password when creating virtual machines. An attacker could exploit this to gain root privileges to the virtual machine by using a predictable password.

This vulnerability only affects virtual machines created with vm-builder under Ubuntu 8.10, and does not affect native Ubuntu installations. An update was made to the shadow package to detect vulnerable systems and disable password authentication for the root account. Vulnerable virtual machines which an attacker has access to should be considered compromised, and appropriate actions taken to secure the machine.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://usn.ubuntu.com/670-1/

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 37886

File Name: ubuntu_USN-670-1.nasl

Version: 1.15

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 4/23/2009

Updated: 1/19/2021

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 5.3

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:login, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:passwd, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python-vm-builder, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python-vm-builder-ec2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:ubuntu-vm-builder, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:6.06:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:7.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:8.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:8.10

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 11/13/2008

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2008-5103, CVE-2008-5104

CWE: 255

USN: 670-1