[ GLSA 200409-18 ] cdrtools: Local root vulnerability in cdrecord if set SUID root

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: cdrtools: Local root vulnerability in cdrecord if set SUID root (GLSA 200409-18)
Severity: high
Exploitable: local
Date: September 14, 2004
Bug(s): #63187
ID: 200409-18

Synopsis

cdrecord, if manually set SUID root, is vulnerable to a local root exploit allowing users to escalate privileges.

Background

The cdrtools package is a set of tools for CD recording, including the popular cdrecord command-line utility.

Affected Packages

Package: app-cdr/cdrtools
Vulnerable: <= 2.01_alpha37
Unaffected: >= 2.01_alpha37-r1
Unaffected: >= 2.01_alpha28-r2 < 2.2
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description

Max Vozeler discovered that the cdrecord utility, when set to SUID root, fails to drop root privileges before executing a user-supplied RSH program. By default, Gentoo does not ship the cdrecord utility as SUID root and therefore is not vulnerable. However, many users (and CD-burning front-ends) set this manually after installation.

Impact

A local attacker could specify a malicious program using the $RSH environment variable and have it executed by the SUID cdrecord, resulting in root privileges escalation.

Workaround

As a workaround, you could remove the SUID rights from your cdrecord utility :