Vulnerability Note VU#40327

Overview

Versions of OpenSSH prior to 2.1.1 (current circa June, 2000) allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of sshd, typically root.

Description

OpenSSH is a free implementation of versions 1 and 2 of the SSH protocol. If sshd is configured with the UseLogin option, it attempts to use login(1) to authenticate the user. However, is ssh is used to execute a command, the command is run with the privileges of sshd, typically root. UseLogin is not enabled by default.

Impact

Remote attackers can run arbitrary commands as root on systems with UseLogin enabled.

Solution

Upgrade to the latest version of OpenSSH.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
OpenSSH	Affected	-	05 Nov 2001

If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.

CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

Group	Score	Vector
Base	N/A	N/A
Temporal	N/A	N/A
Environmental	N/A	N/A

References

• http://www.openbsd.org/errata27.html#uselogin
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/1334
• http://www.securityfocus.com/templates/archive.pike?list=1&date=2000-06-8&msg=20000609170629.A4933@folly.informatik.uni-erlangen.de
• http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/k-058.shtml
• http://www.securiteam.com/unixfocus/5MQ070A1QU.html
• http://xforce.iss.net/alerts/vol-5_num-6.php#-openssh-uselogin-remote-exec

Credit

Our thanks to Markus Friedl who reported this information.

This document was written by Shawn V Hernan.

Other Information

• CVE IDs: CVE-2000-0525
• Date Public: 09 Jun 2000
• Date First Published: 05 Nov 2001
• Date Last Updated: 05 Nov 2001
• Severity Metric: 31.50
• Document Revision: 5