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Security Bulletin 9119              DISA Defense Communications System
3 October 1991          Published by: DDN Security Coordination Center
                                 ([email protected])   1-(800) 365-3642

                       DEFENSE  DATA  NETWORK
                         SECURITY  BULLETIN

The DDN  SECURITY BULLETIN is distributed  by the  DDN SCC  (Security
Coordination Center) under DISA contract as  a means of  communicating
information on network and host security exposures, fixes, &  concerns
to security & management personnel at DDN facilities.  Back issues may
be  obtained  via  FTP  (or  Kermit)  from  NIC.DDN.MIL  [192.112.36.5]
using login="anonymous" and password="guest".  The bulletin pathname is
SCC:DDN-SECURITY-yynn (where "yy" is the year the bulletin is issued
and "nn" is a bulletin number, e.g. SCC:DDN-SECURITY-9119).
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!                                                                       !
!     The following important  advisory was  issued by the Computer     !
!     Emergency Response Team (CERT)  and is being relayed unedited     !
!     via the Defense Information Systems Agency's Security             !
!     Coordination Center  distribution  system  as a  means  of        !
!     providing  DDN subscribers with useful security information.      !
!                                                                       !
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            DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS:  PUBLIC RELEASE

Enclosed is the final draft of a CERT Advisory.  If reprinted, in part or
whole, please credit the:

     Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT/CC)

===========================================================================
CA-91:18                        CERT Advisory
                             September 27, 1991
                        Active Internet tftp Attacks

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The Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT/CC) would
like to alert you to automated tftp probes that have been occurring over
the last few days.  These probes have attacked Internet sites throughout
the world and in most cases the file retrieved was /etc/passwd.  However,
other files such as /etc/rc may have been retrieved.

The CERT/CC is working with the site(s) that were used by intruders
to launch the attacks.  We are actively contacting those sites where we
believe the retrievals were successful.  We are urging all sites to
carefully check their system configurations concerning tftp usage.

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I.   Description

    Unrestricted tftp access allows remote sites to retrieve
    a copy of any world-readable file.

II.  Impact

    Anyone on the Internet can use tftp to retrieve copies of a
    site's sensitive files.  For example, the recent incident
    involved retrieving /etc/passwd.  The intruder can later
    crack the password file and use the information to login
    to the accounts.  This method may provide access to the
    root account.

III. Solution

    A.  Sites that do not need tftp should disable it immediately by
    editing the system configuration file to comment out, or remove,
    the line for tftpd.  This file may be /etc/inetd.conf, /etc/servers,
    or another file depending on your operating system.  To cause
    the change to be effective, it will be necessary to restart
    inetd or force inetd to read the updated configuration file.

    B.  Sites that must use tftp (for example, for booting diskless
    clients) should configure it such that the home directory is changed.
    Example lines from /etc/inetd.conf might look like:

    ULTRIX 4.0
    tftp   dgram  udp  nowait  /etc/tftpd  tftpd -r /tftpboot

    SunOS 4.1
    tftp   dgram  udp  wait  root  /usr/etc/in.tftpd in.tftpd -s /tftpboot

    As in item A. above, inetd must be restarted or forced to read
    the updated configuration file to make the change effective.

    C.  If your system has had tftp configured as unrestricted, the CERT/CC
    urges you to consider taking one of the steps outlined above and
    change all the passwords on your system.

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If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact CERT/CC via
telephone or e-mail.

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

Internet E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 412-268-7090 24-hour hotline:
          CERT/CC personnel answer 7:30a.m.-6:00p.m. EST/EDT,
          on call for emergencies during other hours.

Past advisories and other computer security related information are available
for anonymous ftp from the cert.sei.cmu.edu (192.88.209.5) system.
Posted-Date:  Fri, 27 Sep 91 16:20:58 EDT
Received-Date:  Fri, 27 Sep 91 16:19:38 EDT
Full-Name:  John P. Wack
Organization:  National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Sub-Organization:  Computer Security Division
Return-Path:  <[email protected]>

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