Posted on 11/28/2001 1:28:10 PM PST by Don Joe
A vulnerability in the most widely used FTP server program for Linux has left numerous sites open to online attackers, a situation worsened when Red Hat mistakenly released information on the flaw early, leaving other Linux companies scrambling to get a fix out.
"Other vendors didn't have a patch," said Alfred Huger, vice president of engineering for network security information provider SecurityFocus. The company has been working with vendors to fix the vulnerability after computer security company Core Security Technologies alerted them to the problem Nov. 14.
"The fix is not rocket science," Huger said. "But we weren't working at a breakneck pace to get a patch out, because everyone was working together."
The software flaw affects all versions of wu-FTP, a program originally created at Washington University at St. Louis for servers running FTP (file transfer protocol) functions for transferring files over the Internet.
While the exact number of active FTP servers on the Internet is not known, the software is the most commonly installed file server and accompanies most major Linux distributions, including those from Red Hat, SuSE, Caldera International, Turbolinux, Connectiva, Cobalt Networks, MandrakeSoft and Wirex.
The problem, known in security circles as the wu-FTP Globbing Heap Corruption Vulnerability, allows attackers to get remote access to all files on a server, provided they can access the FTP service. Since most such servers provide anonymous access to anyone on the Internet, a great number will be vulnerable.
Huger called the flaw "serious."
The impact of the software vulnerability was exacerbated because many Linux software companies were caught flat-footed by a surprise early release of information regarding the vulnerability.
While the group that discovered the flaw, Core ST, informed Linux software companies and the open-source group that manages development for wu-FTP of the flaw, Red Hat mistakenly released a security advisory to its customers on Tuesday.
Normally, an advisory is a good thing, but other Linux software sellers had expected any advisories to be published Dec. 3, giving them time to work on fixes. Instead, the surprise announcement left the customers of other companies' products vulnerable.
"We were releasing some advisories on the same day, and an overzealous administrator pushed this out as well," said Mark Cox, senior engineering director for Red Hat. The company is adding new safeguards to its publishing system to avoid similar problems in the future, he said.
"We put a stop to this," Cox said. "This will not happen again. It was a bad mistake."
Oh oh... I am sensing a group hug again...
That's about the only thing you've gotten correct here.
This is not a Linux bug. Not even close.
And the lack of knowledge displayed in *claiming* it's a Linux bug is astounding, and fully explains your defense of MS!
And that is really wrong with this story. If the user community had been informed on Nov 14th, they could have at least disabled or not allowed anonymous access while the bug was being corrected. As it is, they were left in the dark, with their systems wide open, and would still be in the dark if Red Hat hadn't jumped the gun.
And by their own admission, the vendors "...weren't working at a breakneck pace to get a patch out, because everyone was working together." Sounds like collusion.
Have fun everyone!
How's that go? Oh, yeah, now I remember: "You sound like *so* uninformed! Ewwwwwww!"
Man, really, you're embarrasing yourself. <P This isn't a Linux bug.
Yes, I know I said I was leaving but this thread is so much fun!
Oh well. FYI, Some of our clients are the top Accounting firms (PWC, KPMG, AA, etc...).
And we're in the United States...:)
Really, good luck...
I was inspired by your "makes me want to vomit" comment. :)
Look, I'm shooting straight here. This makes you sound *very* unknowledgable.
This isn't a Linux bug. No one will even *think* it's a Linux bug. I know because of your MS leanings you'd like to try and sell that, but no one will buy it except the truly ignorant.
And it's making you look *very* bad.
That's only until someone puts their eye out. :)
No, ya'll don't!
I'm on slashdot regularly. No one has ever claimed that open source code never has bugs.
That's as bogus a claim as calling this a Linux bug.
Dude, I had hoped you were smarter than these others. I had written them off as technical incompetents a while back. You, well, because of the email conversations, I had hope you might have some potential.
I suppose I was mistaken.
Please tell me you're just saying this for partisan reasons, and don't really believe it?
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