Flaws could open systems to attack
Two serious security flaws in a technology widely used for network authentication could expose a swath of software products to hacker attack, experts have warned.
The flaws could allow an online intruder to crash or gain access to computers running Kerberos, a freely available authentication technology that was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
MIT rates both flaws "critical," according to two advisories released Tuesday. The university also made available patches to fix the problems and stated that exploitation of the bugs by attackers "is believed to be difficult."
Several software makers have already released updates to their products to address the problem. Red Hat, Turbolinux and Gentoo have issued fixes for their Linux versions, for example. Sun Microsystems on Tuesday issued two alerts acknowledging that several versions of Solaris are vulnerable, but it does not have a patch available yet.
Because Kerberos is so widely used, more vendors are likely to publish security alerts, said Brian Grayek, chief technology officer at Preventsys, a vulnerability management company in Carlsbad, Calif. "I think you are going to see a floodgate of patches open," he said.
Microsoft also uses Kerberos, but a homegrown version that is not affected by the flaws.
Both bugs affect Kerberos 5 Release 1.4.1 as well as earlier versions, according to MIT.
Independent security-monitoring company Secunia rates the issues "highly critical," its second most serious rating. The French Security Incident Response Team, or FrSIRT, deems the bugs "critical," its highest ranking.
Preventsys' Grayek agreed that the vulnerabilities are serious but noted that crafting attacks is difficult. "It is going to take somebody with a great deal of knowledge to turn these vulnerabilities into exploits," he said.
This isn't the first flaw in Kerberos. In March, MIT warned of a "serious" bug in the telnet program supplied with Kerberos. Last August, a "critical" flaw was discovered and patched.
Earlier this month a vulnerability in another widely used software component exposed some of the same products to attack. That flaw affects the open-source "zlib" data compression technology. Using a specially crafted file, an attacker could take control over a computer or crash applications that use zlib.
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- 2093 reads
- PDF version
More in Tux Machines
- Highlights
- Front Page
- Latest Headlines
- Archive
- Recent comments
- All-Time Popular Stories
- Hot Topics
- New Members
digiKam 7.7.0 is releasedAfter three months of active maintenance and another bug triage, the digiKam team is proud to present version 7.7.0 of its open source digital photo manager. See below the list of most important features coming with this release. |
Dilution and Misuse of the "Linux" Brand
|
Samsung, Red Hat to Work on Linux Drivers for Future TechThe metaverse is expected to uproot system design as we know it, and Samsung is one of many hardware vendors re-imagining data center infrastructure in preparation for a parallel 3D world. Samsung is working on new memory technologies that provide faster bandwidth inside hardware for data to travel between CPUs, storage and other computing resources. The company also announced it was partnering with Red Hat to ensure these technologies have Linux compatibility. |
today's howtos
|
Recent comments
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago