
CA-90:01
			    CERT Advisory
			   29 January 1990
		      Sun Sendmail Vulnerability
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The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERT/CC) has
learned of, and has verified, break-ins on several Internet systems 
in which the intruders have exploited a vulnerability in the Sun
sendmail program.  This vulnerability exists in all versions of
SunOS up to and including the current version, 4.0.3 on Sun 3, Sun 4,
and Sun 386i systems (note that 4.0.2 is the most current version of
SunOS on the 386i machines). That is, all current Sun systems.

The vulnerability has previously been reported to Sun and a solution
to this problem (Sun bug # 1028173) is available via a new version of
sendmail supplied by Sun.  The new sendmail is available directly from
the Sun Answer Center (1-800-USA-4SUN).  Sun 3 and Sun 4 sendmail
binaries are also available via anonymous FTP from uunet.uu.net in the
/sun-fixes directory.

This incident underscores the need for system administrators to
maintain an awareness of the steps their vendors are taking to
improve the security aspects of their products, and to seriously
consider upgrading system configurations when solutions to security
problems are made available.

Administrators of Sun systems are urged to contact Sun for the new
version of the sendmail program.  Administrators of machines other 
than Suns are urged to contact their vendors to verify that they are 
running the latest version of sendmail, since there may have been 
security related fixes to it in the past year.

If you need further information on this problem, contact your Sun
representative or CERT/CC.  CERT/CC can be contacted by telephone at
(412) 268-7090 (24 hours) or email to cert@cert.org (monitored
daily).

Our thanks to Matt Bishop and Wayne Cripps for their efforts in
analyzing and investigating this problem and its solution.

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Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

Internet: cert@cert.org
Telephone: 412-268-7090 24-hour hotline: CERT personnel answer
           7:30a.m.-6:00p.m. EST, on call for
           emergencies other hours.

Past advisories and other information are available for anonymous ftp
from cert.org (192.88.209.5).

