Vulnerability Note VU#895609

MIT Kerberos krb4-enabled KDC contains multiple vulnerabilities

Original Release date: 18 Mar 2008 | Last revised: 22 Jul 2011

Overview

Vulnerabilities in the MIT Kerberos Key Distribution Center server could allow a remote attacker to compromise the key database, gain access to sensitive information, or cause a denial of service.

Description

Several vulnerabilities exist in the Authentication Service and Key Distribution Center server (krb5kdc) included in the MIT krb5 Kerberos implementation. In one case, the use of a null or dangling pointer in the KDC can result in a crash or double-free, and may leak portions of process memory to an attacker. In another case, uninitialized stack values cause reuse of a small window of previous stack values to be interpreted as message content. Some of this content may be returned to the attacker as part of an error response.

These vulnerabilities are only exposed if Kerberos 4 support is enabled. MIT notes that by default, Kerberos 4 support is compiled in but not enabled in recent versions of the software. MIT also notes that no other client or application server programs are affected.

Impact

An unauthenticated remote attacker may cause a krb4-enabled KDC server to crash, expose information (potentially including secret key data), or execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the krb5kdc. Secondary impacts include compromise of the Kerberos key database and denial of service to clients attempting to authenticate in the affected Kerberos realm.

Solution

Upgrade or apply a patch from the vendor

Patches have been released to address these issues. Please see the Systems Affected section of this document for more details.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Apple Computer, Inc.Affected06 Mar 200818 Mar 2008
MIT Kerberos Development TeamAffected06 Mar 200818 Mar 2008
UbuntuAffected06 Mar 200819 Mar 2008
Cisco Systems, Inc.Not Affected06 Mar 200810 Mar 2008
Computer AssociatesNot Affected06 Mar 200818 Mar 2008
Force10 Networks, Inc.Not Affected06 Mar 200822 Jul 2011
Intel CorporationNot Affected06 Mar 200810 Mar 2008
IntotoNot Affected06 Mar 200810 Mar 2008
Juniper Networks, Inc.Not Affected06 Mar 200803 Apr 2008
Microsoft CorporationNot Affected06 Mar 200803 Apr 2008
Secure Computing Network Security DivisionNot Affected06 Mar 200810 Mar 2008
Sun Microsystems, Inc.Not Affected06 Mar 200818 Mar 2008
TippingPoint, Technologies, Inc.Not Affected06 Mar 200818 Mar 2008
3com, Inc.Unknown06 Mar 200806 Mar 2008
AlcatelUnknown06 Mar 200806 Mar 2008
If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.View More »

CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

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

References

Credit

Thanks to Ken Raeburn of the MIT Kerberos Team for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Chad R Dougherty.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2008-0062 CVE-2008-0063
  • Date Public: 18 Mar 2008
  • Date First Published: 18 Mar 2008
  • Date Last Updated: 22 Jul 2011
  • Severity Metric: 10.10
  • Document Revision: 13

Feedback

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.