Vulnerability Note VU#100780

Sun Ray Smartcard reader may leave desktop session open when card is quickly removed

Overview

The Sun Ray Smartcard reader fails to properly detect a "quick removal, reinsertion and removal of a Smartcard."

I. Description

The Sun Ray is a thin client computing device designed to process user input and output, and provide access to computing services hosted by a server. Authentication can be accomplished through a smartcard. By design, the smartcard must remain inserted during the user's session. Quoting from sun documentation about smart cards and the Sun Ray

" When the user is finished (that is, the smart card is removed), the Authentication Manager is notified. If the user has not logged out, the session is kept alive with all services disconnected from the display. No files are left on the device, as all state is kept on the server, and the screen is cleared. When the user removes the smart card, there are no traces that he or she had been there. There is no risk that the next user to walk up will discover files or see the contents of windows that he or she shouldn't see. "

A "quick removal, reinsertion and removal of a Smartcard" into the smartcard reader is not detected properly under some circumstances. If this occurs, the login session remains connected to the Desk Top Unit (DTU) inappropriately.

II. Impact

Under some circumstances, a user session may remain available even if the smartcard has been removed, in violation of the security architecture of the system.

III. Solution

A fix is pending from the vendor.

Until a fix is available, ensure that all sessions have been disconnected when rmoving a smartcard from the Sun Ray Smartcard reader.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Updated
Sun Microsystems Inc.	Vulnerable	4-Jun-2003

References

http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doc=fsalert%2F53922&zone_32=category%3Asecurity
http://www.sun.com/products/sunray/techinfo/smartcards.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/7457

Credit

Thanks to Sun Microsystems for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Shawn V Hernan.

Other Information

Date Public	04/28/2003
Date First Published	06/04/2003 04:31:54 PM
Date Last Updated	06/05/2003
CERT Advisory
CVE Name
Metric	0.13
Document Revision	4

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