Apache Week issue 311

Apache Week <[email protected]> Fri, 4 Oct 2002 13:11:19 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.comp.apache.apacheweek
Message-ID <[email protected]>
                                APACHE WEEK

The essential weekly guide for users of the world's most popular Web server.
                        Issue 311: 4th October 2002

                                 In this issue

     * Security Reports
     * Apache 1.3.27 Released
     * Apache 2.0.43 Released
     * In the news

                               Security Reports

     This  week four security issues have been announced that affect the
     latest versions of the 1.3 and 2.0 Apache httpd server.
     * In Apache 1.3 versions up to and including 1.3.26, the permissions
       of  the  shared  memory used for the scoreboard allows a user with
       the  uid  of  the  Apache  server  to 1) send signals to arbitrary
       processes  as  root,  and  2)  cause  a  local  denial  of service
       vulnerability.   This   issue   does   not   affect   Apache  2.0.
       [1]CAN-2002-0839
       In  order  to  exploit  this vulnerability a remote attacker would
       have  to  use some other vulnerability to be able to run arbitrary
       commands as the uid of the Apache server. Access to the uid of the
       Apache server is also available to anyone who has the authority to
       create scripts that can be run by the server (such as PHP or CGI).
       This issue was reported to the ASF by zen-parse through iDefense
     * A  cross-site  scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in the
       default  error  page.  The  issue  could  only be exploited if the
       directive UseCanonicalName is set to Off and a server is being run
       at  a  domain that uses wildcard DNS. The default setting has been
       Off  in  2.0  since  2  .0.33; 1.3 has always had it On, so is not
       vulnerable   by   default,   but   is   vulnerable   if   you  set
       UseCanonicalName  to  Off.  This  issue  affects  Apache  2.0  all
       versions including 2.0.42 and 1.3 all versions up to and including
       1.3.26. [2]CAN-2002-0840
       Wildcard  DNS  allows  a  server administrator to set up a host to
       respond to any particular hostname in the domain. For example with
       a  DNS  entry  of *.apacheweek.com any domain that is looked up in
       the  apacheweek.com  domain  would  resolve.  Wildcard  DNS is not
       particularly  common  so  this  vulnerability will not affect many
       sites.
       This issue was reported to the ASF by Matthew Murphy
     * Buffer   overflows  in  the  ApacheBench  utility,  ab,  used  for
       benchmarking  sites  can  be  exploited  if  it  is  run against a
       malicious server. [3]CAN-2002-0843
       As   a   work-around,   administrators  could  simply  remove  the
       ApacheBench utility or not run it against untrusted servers.
       This issue was reported to the ASF by David Wagner
     * In  Apache  2.0.42,  for a location where both WebDAV and CGI were
       enabled,  a  POST  request  to  a  CGI script would reveal the CGI
       source  to  a remote user. This issue does not affect any versions
       of  Apache  2.0  other than 2.0.42, and does not affect Apache 1.3
       servers running mod_dav 1.0. [4]CAN-2002-1156

     These issues have all been fixed in Apache 1.3.27 and Apache 2.0.43
     which are now available.

                            Apache 1.3.27 Released

     Apache  1.3.27  was  released  on  3^rd October 2002 and is now the
     latest  version  of the Apache 1.3 server. The previous release was
     1.3.26,  released  on  the  18^th June 2002. [5]See what was new in
     Apache 1.3.26.

     Apache  1.3.27 is available in source form for compiling on Unix or
     Windows,  for  download  from  the  [6]main Apache site or from any
     [7]mirror download site.

     This  is  a  security,  bug  fix  and minor upgrade release. Due to
     security  issues,  any  sites using versions prior to Apache 1.3.27
     should  upgrade  to  Apache  1.3.27.  [8]Read  more about the other
     security issues that affect Apache 1.3.

Security issues

     * Fix  the security vulnerability regarding ownership permissions of
       System  V shared memory based scoreboards. The fix resulted in the
       new ShmemUIDisUser directive. [9]CAN-2002-0839
     * Fix  the  security  vulnerability regarding a cross-site scripting
       vulnerability  in  the default error page when using wildcard DNS.
       [10]CAN-2002-0840
     * Fix  the  security vulnerability regarding some possible overflows
       in   ab.c   which  could  be  exploited  by  a  malicious  server.
       [11]CAN-2002-0843

New features

     The main new features in 1.3.27 (compared to 1.3.26) are:
     * A  new  directive, ErrorHeader has been added. This allows headers
       (such  as  cookies)  to be specified that will accompany any error
       pages or redirects
     * Configuration  file  globbing  can now use simple pattern matching
       which   can   stop   backup   and  other  files  getting  included
       [12]BZ#12712
     * Include directives may now have wildcards in the final part of the
       path.
     * A  new directive, ProtocolReqCheck has been added which determines
       if  Apache  will  check for a valid protocol string in the request
       (such  as  HTTP/1.1)  and  return  HTTP_BAD_REQUEST  if not valid.
       Versions  of  Apache  prior  to  1.3.26  would silently ignore bad
       protocol  strings,  but  1.3.26 included a more strict check. This
       directive makes it runtime configurable.
     * Added support for Berkeley-DB/4.x to mod_auth_db.
     * Support Caldera OpenUNIX 8.

Bugs fixed

     The  following bugs were found in Apache 1.3.26 and have been fixed
     in Apache 1.3.27:
     * Some  fixes  to  mod_proxy. The cache was incorrectly updating the
       Content-Length  from 304 responses when doing validation. Also fix
       a  problem  where  headers  from  other  modules were added to the
       response headers when this was done in the core already.
     * In  1.3.26,  a  null or all-blank Content-Length triggers an error
       although  previous  versions would silently ignore it and assume 0
       length. 1.3.27 restores this previous behaviour.
     * Fix  a  one byte null overflow in ap_get_win32_interpreter used on
       Win32 platforms triggered when the initial #! line in a CGI script
       did not contain a \r or \n character in the first 1023 bytes.

                            Apache 2.0.43 Released

     Apache  2.0.43  was  released  on  3^rd October 2002 and is now the
     latest  version  of the Apache 2.0 server. The previous release was
     2.0.42,  released on the 24^th September 2002. [13]See what was new
     in Apache 2.0.42.

     Apache  2.0.43 is available in source form for compiling on Unix or
     Windows,  for  download  from  the [14]main Apache site or from any
     [15]mirror download site.

     This  is  a  security,  bug  fix  and minor upgrade release. Due to
     security  issues,  any  sites using versions prior to Apache 2.0.43
     should  upgrade  to  Apache  2.0.43.  [16]Read more about the other
     security issues that affect Apache 2.0.

Security issues

     * Fix  the  security  vulnerability regarding a cross-site scripting
       vulnerability  in  the default error page when using wildcard DNS.
       [17]CAN-2002-0840
     * Fix  the  exposure  of CGI source when a POST request is sent to a
       location where both DAV and CGI are enabled. [18]CAN-2002-1156
     * Fix  the  security vulnerability regarding some possible overflows
       in   ab.c   which  could  be  exploited  by  a  malicious  server.
       [19]CAN-2002-0843

Bugs fixed

     The  following bugs were found in Apache 2.0.42 and have been fixed
     in Apache 2.0.43:
     * The  UserDir directive has been fixed to again take a list of user
       names to enable userdir access for, as per 1.3.
     * Flushing  behaviour  has  been  improved, to ensure that available
       response  output is flushed when no new output is pending; helping
       streaming CGIs and other dynamically-generated content
     * mod_auth_ldap  has  been  fixed  to  retry connections to the LDAP
       server if it becomes unavailable.
     * Fix  for  a  locking problem in mod_ssl's session cache code which
       could cause infinite loops on some platforms
     * Fixes for mod_cache to prevent a segfault when attempting to cache
       some  combinations  of  content (for instance, when using SSI tags
       which    execute    CGI    scripts),    and    to    correct   the
       CacheMaxStreamingBuffer directive for virtual hosts
     * The  default  server  root  directory  in suexec has been fixed to
       match the default install root
     * mod_proxy  was  fixed to not strip WWW-Authenticate headers on 4xx
       error  responses  which  prevented  server  authentication  to  be
       performed via the proxy

New features

     * A  new  module,  mod_logio, has been added which allows logging of
       the number of bytes sent and received by the server.
     * A  -p  option  has  been  added to apxs to allow programs to be be
       compiled using this tool.

                                  In the news

ApacheCon early-bird extended

     If  you  are reading this issue on Friday the 4th October 2002 then
     you  may  still  have  a  few  hours  to get the US$200 discount on
     [20]registration  for  ApacheCon.  ApacheCon  is  being held in Las
     Vegas,  USA  from the 19th-21th November 2002, with an optional day
     of  tutorials  available  on November 18th. The conference is being
     held  at  the  same  time as Comdex in Las Vegas, and all ApacheCon
     delegates also get a free pass to the Comdex Exhibit hall.

     Apache  Week will be on hand as always to report on the event. Find
     out  more  at  the  [21]conference web site, or read our account of
     [22]ApacheCon 2001 Santa Clara.

Covalent founder breaks bond to form new Apache startup

     An  article  this week in ZDNet News, [23]Apache chief scouts a new
     direction,  follows  the  resignation  of  [24]Randy  Terbush  from
     Covalent.  Randy  has  started  up a new company focusing on Apache
     services  rather  than  products.  He  is  joined by another former
     Covalent  employee  and  ASF  director  [25]Dirk-Willem  van Gulik.
     Covalent  received  a  lot  of  press  attention  back  at the 2000
     ApacheCon when they announced they were assembling a [26]dream team
     of   Apache   developers.  However  with  the  [27]reported  recent
     departure  of  lead Apache 2.0 contributor [28]Ryan Bloom, only one
     of  the  original  five  remains.  Even  so, Covalent report having
     "their best quarters ever ... with double-digit growth".
       ______________________________________________________________

     This issue brought to you by: Mark J Cox, Joe Orton
     Comments or criticisms? Please email us at
     [29][email protected].

     [30]Apache Week is copyright 1996-2002 by [31]Red Hat, Inc.

References

   1. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0839
   2. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0840
   3. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0843
   4. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-1156
   5. http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/02-06-21#apache1325
   6. http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/
   7. http://www.apache.org/mirrors/
   8. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/security-13
   9. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0839
  10. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0840
  11. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0843
  12. http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=12712
  13. http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/02-06-21#apache2042
  14. http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/
  15. http://www.apache.org/mirrors/
  16. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/security-20
  17. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0840
  18. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-1156
  19. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2002-0843
  20. http://www.apachecon.com/
  21. http://www.apachecon.com/
  22. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/apachecon2001
  23. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-960566.html
  24. http://httpd.apache.org/contributors/#terbush
  25. http://httpd.apache.org/contributors/#vangulik
  26. http://linuxpr.com/releases/1410.html
  27. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=apache-cvs&m=102947008010433&q=raw
  28. http://httpd.apache.org/contributors/#bloom
  29. mailto:[email protected]
  30. http://www.apacheweek.com/
  31. http://www.redhat.com/

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