AusCERT - AA-96.07 -- Vulnerabilities in HP Remote Watch Software

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AA-96.07 -- Vulnerabilities in HP Remote Watch Software
Date: 29 October 1996

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AA-96.07                        AUSCERT Advisory
		   Vulnerabilities in HP Remote Watch Software
                                 24 October 1996

Last Revised: October 29, 1996
		Added HP Security bulletin in Appendix A
		Changed vulnerability information

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

AUSCERT has received information that there are vulnerabilities in the
Hewlett-Packard Remote Watch Software.  This product's primary function
is the collection of system data, which is available to both system
administrators and HP support personnel.  It can also be used to monitor
day-to-day changes in the system, informing the system administrator of
any errors and configuration changes found.

The Remote Watch software is provided as a separate product with the HP
Series 300/400/700, and as a subsystem of the HP Support Watch product on
the HP 800 Series.  Any system with the HP Remote Watch product installed
is vulnerable.

These vulnerabilities may allow remote as well as local users to gain root
privileges.

Exploit details involving these vulnerabilities have been made publicly
available.

AUSCERT recommends that sites take the actions suggested in Section 3
as soon as possible.

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.  Description

    The HP Remote Watch product is auxiliary software which is often
    installed on HP-UX 9.x systems, although not part of the default
    installation.  Remote Watch is a separate product for HP
    Series 300/400/700, and is a subsystem of the the HP Support Watch
    product for HP Series 800.  

    Systems running HP-UX 10.x may have this package installed even 
    though it is not supported.

    AUSCERT has been informed of a number of vulnerabilities in the Remote
    Watch product involving both the daemon and its support modules.  All
    sites are encouraged to check their systems for this package, and if
    installed, take the actions recommended in Section 3.

    The default location for this product is /usr/remwatch/.

	% ls -ld /usr/remwatch/

2.  Impact

    Local and remote users may be able to execute arbitrary commands with
    root privileges.  This may be leveraged to gain unauthorised root
    access.

3.  Workarounds/Solution

    AUSCERT recommends that sites prevent exploitation of these
    vulnerabilities by taking the measures given in Section 3.1
    immediately.

    AUSCERT has been informed that Hewlett Packard will not be releasing
    patches to address these vulnerabilities.  Hewlett Packard has released
    a security bulletin discussing these vulnerabilities and the current
    product status of the Remote Watch product.  This bulletin is attached
    in Appendix A.

3.1 Remove the HP Remote Watch Product

    AUSCERT has been informed that these vulnerabilities can only be
    removed by disabling the Remote Watch product.  Therefore, sites are
    advised to remove the Remote Watch product from their systems as soon
    as possible.  This can be accomplished by issuing the following command
    as root:

       # /usr/remwatch/bin/removeall

    NOTE:  Do not run the standard rmfn command as HP has discovered
    problems with its inability to handle programs with active executables.

    The administrator should also perform both of the following tasks:

    1.  Remove or comment out the following line from /etc/inetd.conf

       rwdaemon stream tcp nowait root /usr/remwatch/bin/rwdaemon rwdaemon

    2.  Have inetd re-read it's configuration file by issuing the following
        command:

       # inetd -c


............................................................................

Appendix A

- ----------------------BEGIN HP SECURITY ADVISORY-------------------------

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
      HEWLETT-PACKARD SECURITY ADVISORY: #000039, 24 October 1996
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hewlett-Packard recommends that the information in the following
Security Advisory should be acted upon as soon as possible. Hewlett-
Packard will not be liable for any consequences to any customer resulting
from customer's failure to fully implement instructions in this Security
Advisory as soon as possible.

Permission is granted for copying and circulating this advisory to
Hewlett-Packard (HP) customers (or the Internet community) for the
purpose of alerting them to problems, if and only if, the advisory is
not edited or changed in any way, is attributed to HP, and provided such
reproduction and/or distribution is performed for non-commercial
purposes.

Any other use of this information is prohibited. HP is not liable
for any misuse of this information by any third party.

_______________________________________________________________________
PROBLEM:  Vulnerability in HP Remote Watch in 9.X releases of HP-UX
PLATFORM: HP 9000 series 300/400/700/800s
DAMAGE:   Vulnerabilities in HP Remote Watch exists allowing users to
          gain additional privileges.
SOLUTION: Do not use Remote Watch.
_______________________________________________________________________

I. Remote Watch Update

   A. Problem description

   A recent mailing list disclosure described two vulnerabilities in
   which HP Remote Watch allows unauthorized root access. The first was
   via a socket connection on port 5556.  The second was as a result of
   using the showdisk utility, which is part of the Remote Watch product.
   It has been found that HP9000 Series 300, 400, 700, and 800 systems
   running only HP-UX Release 9.X have this vulnerability.

   B. Fixing the problem

   This vulnerability can only be eliminated from releases 9.X of HP-UX
   which are using Remote Watch by disabling the entire product.  The
   default location for this product is /usr/remwatch/   .
   Removal can be accomplished (as root) with the following:

   NOTE: Do not run the standard rmfn command as HP has discovered
   problems with its inability to handle programs with active executables.

   Instead, run (with no options):

            /usr/remwatch/bin/removeall

   This runs a Remote Watch script called "unconfigure" to stop actively
   running programs, then proceeds to remove all files including the
   filesets.

   The administrator should also perform both of the following steps:

     1.  Remove or comment out the following entry in /etc/inetd.conf
         file:

    rwdaemon stream tcp nowait root /usr/remwatch/bin/rwdaemon rwdaemon

     2.  Have inetd re-read its configuration file by executing at the
         prompt:

    inetd -c


   This is the official recommendation from Hewlett-Packard Company.

   C. Current product status

   Remote Watch was last released from the labs in August of 1993.
   In December 1994 customers were informed of pending product
   obsolescence.   Hewlett-Packard recommends that all customers
   concerned with the security of their HP-UX systems with Remote
   Watch configured on it perform the actions described herein as
   soon as possible.  Again, no patches will be available for any
   versions of HP-UX.

   Since the functionality of HP Remote Watch software has now been
   replicated in other tools that handle system management more
   effectively there is no longer a sufficient need for HP Remote
   Watch.  Most of the functionality is now provided by the Systems
   Administration Manager (SAM) tool, available at no charge as part
   of the HP-UX operating system, or by the HP OpenView
   OperationsCenter application.

   If further assistance is desired please contact your HP Support
   Representative.


   D. HP SupportLine

   To subscribe to automatically receive future NEW HP Security
   Bulletins from the HP SupportLine mail service via electronic mail,
   send an email message to:

          support@us.external.hp.com   (no Subject is required)

   Multiple instructions are allowed in the TEXT PORTION OF THE MESSAGE,
   here are some basic instructions you may want to use:

   To add your name to the subscription list for new security bulletins,
   send the following in the TEXT PORTION OF THE MESSAGE:

          subscribe security_info

   To retrieve the index of all HP Security Bulletins issued to date,
   send the following in the TEXT PORTION OF THE MESSAGE:

          send security_info_list

   To get a patch matrix of current HP-UX and BLS security patches
   referenced by either Security Bulletin or Platform/OS, put the
   following in the text portion of your message:

          send hp-ux_patch_matrix

   World Wide Web service for browsing of bulletins is available via
   our URL:
          http://us.external.hp.com

          Choose "Support news", then under Support news,
          choose "Security Bulletins"


   E. To report new security vulnerabilities, send email to

          security-alert@hp.com

   Please encrypt exploit information using the security-alert PGP
   key, available from your local key server, or by sending a
   message with a -subject- (not body) of 'get key' (no quotes) to
   security-alert@hp.com.

- ------------------------END HP SECURITY ADVISORY----------------------------

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSCERT thanks Hewlett-Packard for supplying technical expertise used to
produce this advisory.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The AUSCERT team have made every effort to ensure that the information
contained in this document is accurate.  However, the decision to use the
information described is the responsibility of each user or organisation.
The appropriateness of this document for an organisation or individual
system should be considered before application in conjunction with local
policies and procedures.  AUSCERT takes no responsibility for the
consequences of applying the contents of this document.

If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact AUSCERT or
your representative in FIRST (Forum of Incident Response and Security
Teams).

AUSCERT is located at The University of Queensland within the Prentice
Centre.  AUSCERT is a full member of the Forum of Incident Response and
Security Teams (FIRST).

AUSCERT maintains an anonymous FTP service which is found on:
ftp://ftp.auscert.org.au/pub/.  This archive contains past SERT and AUSCERT
Advisories, and other computer security information.

AUSCERT also maintains a World Wide Web service which is found on:
http://www.auscert.org.au/.

Internet Email: auscert@auscert.org.au
Facsimile:	(07) 3365 4477
Telephone:	(07) 3365 4417 (International: +61 7 3365 4417)
		AUSCERT personnel answer during Queensland business hours
		which are GMT+10:00 (AEST).
		On call after hours for emergencies.

Postal:
Australian Computer Emergency Response Team
c/- Prentice Centre
The University of Queensland
Brisbane
Qld.  4072.
AUSTRALIA


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Revision History

October 29 1996	Hewlett Packard released a Security Bulletin addressing
		the vulnerabilities described in this advisory.  This
		bulletin was added in Appendix A.

		New vulnerabilities in the Remote Watch Product were
		publicly released, and the description in this advisory
		changed accordingly.

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