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Carnegie Mellon University

Software Engineering Institute

CERT Coordination Center

iPlanet Directory Server contains multiple vulnerabilities in LDAP handling code

Vulnerability Note VU#276944

Original Release Date: 2001-07-17 | Last Revised: 2002-12-12

Overview

The iPlanet Directory Server contains vulnerabilities that may allow denial-of-service attacks, unauthorized privileged access, or both. These vulnerabilities were revealed using the PROTOS LDAPv3 test suite and are documented in CERT Advisory CA-2001-18. If your site uses this product, the CERT/CC encourages you to follow the advice provided below.

Description

The iPlanet Directory Server contains multiple vulnerabilities in the code that processes LDAP requests.

In the encoding section of the test suite, this product had an indeterminate number of failures in the group that tests invalid BER length of length fields.

In the application section of the test suite, this product failed four groups and had inconclusive results for an additional five groups. The four failed groups indicate the presence of buffer overflow vulnerabilities. For the inconclusive groups, the product exhibited suspicious behavior while testing for format string vulnerabilities.

Impact

One or more of these vulnerabilities allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the Directory Server. The server typically runs with system privileges. At least one of these vulnerabilities has been successfully exploited in a laboratory environment under Windows NT 4.0, but they may affect other platforms as well.

Solution

Apply a patch from your vendor

Please consult the Systems Affected section for vendor-specific information on addressing this vulnerability.

Block access to directory services at network perimeter


As a temporary measure, it is possible to limit the scope of these vulnerabilities by blocking access to directory services at the network perimeter. Please note that this workaround does not protect vulnerable products from internal attacks.

            ldap    389/tcp     # Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
            ldap    389/udp     # Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
            ldaps   636/tcp     # ldap protocol over TLS/SSL (was sldap)
            ldaps   636/udp     # ldap protocol over TLS/SSL (was sldap)

Vendor Information

276944
 
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SGI Affected

Notified:  November 26, 2001 Updated: December 10, 2001

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

SGI has released the following Security Advisory regarding this vulnerability

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has archived the following copy of SGI's advisory

iPlanet Affected

Notified:  April 06, 2001 Updated: July 27, 2001

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

iPlanet is aware of the weakness identified in the CERT Alert CA-2001-18, regarding implementations of LDAP. The notice describes how different vendors handle conditions outside of the normal operating environment.

It is important to note that the notice does not present a technique to defeat information security, gain unauthorized access or affect data integrity. At this time, iPlanet is not aware of ANY successful breach of security using the information in the CERT Advisory.

The iPlanet Directory Server 5.0 released in May 2001 is not affected. iPlanet Directory Server 4.1.4 and earlier version are known to be affected. However, iPlanet has developed a fix included in iPlanet Directory Server 4.1.5 and is scheduled to ship within two weeks (on August 3, 2001). Alternatively, customers may choose to upgrade to iPlanet Directory Server 5.0

iPlanet customers with questions on this advisory are requested to contact iPlanet Technical Support who will provide full support and up-to-date information.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

This statement can also be found at http://www.iplanet.com/products/platform_layer/cert_alert_ca200118.html.

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


CVSS Metrics

Group Score Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

Acknowledgements

The CERT Coordination Center thanks the Oulu University Secure Programming Group for reporting these vulnerabilities to us, for their detailed technical analyses, and for their assistance in preparing this document.

This document was written by Jeffrey P. Lanza.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2001-1306
CERT Advisory: CA-2001-18
Severity Metric: 18.70
Date Public: 2001-07-16
Date First Published: 2001-07-17
Date Last Updated: 2002-12-12 23:23 UTC
Document Revision: 39

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