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1.20      deraadt     4: <title>OpenBSD Security</title>
1.1       deraadt     5: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
                      6: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
                      7: <meta name="description" content="OpenBSD advisories">
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1.45      deraadt    10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1997,1998 by OpenBSD.">
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                     14:
1.77      deraadt    15: <img alt="[OpenBSD]" height=30 width=141 SRC="images/smalltitle.gif">
1.1       deraadt    16:
1.56      deraadt    17: <hr>
                     18: <a href=#21>For 2.1 security advisories, please refer here</a>.<br>
                     19: <a href=#22>For 2.2 security advisories, please refer here</a>.<br>
                     20: <a href=#23>For 2.3 security advisories, please refer here</a>.<br>
1.75      deraadt    21: <a href=#24>For 2.4 security advisories, please refer here</a>.<br>
1.56      deraadt    22: <hr>
                     23:
1.2       deraadt    24: <p>
1.12      deraadt    25: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>OpenBSD Security Views</strong></font></h3>
1.22      deraadt    26:
1.14      deraadt    27: OpenBSD believes in strong security.  Our aspiration is to be NUMBER
1.22      deraadt    28: ONE in the industry for security (if we are not already there).  Our
                     29: open software development model permits us to take a more
                     30: uncompromising view towards increased security than Sun, SGI, IBM, HP,
                     31: or other vendors are able to.  We can make changes the vendors would
1.27      deraadt    32: not make.  Also, since OpenBSD is exported with <a href=crypto.html>
1.45      deraadt    33: cryptography</a>, we are able to take cryptographic approaches towards
                     34: fixing security problems.<p>
1.18      deraadt    35:
1.45      deraadt    36: Like many readers of the
1.13      deraadt    37: <a href=http://www.geek-girl.com/bugtraq/index.html>
1.18      deraadt    38: BUGTRAQ mailing list</a>,
1.45      deraadt    39: we believe in full disclosure of security problems.  Security
                     40: information moves very fast in cracker circles.  On the other hand,
                     41: our experience is that coding and releasing of proper security fixes
                     42: typically requires about an hour of work -- very fast fix turnaround
                     43: is possible.  Thus we think that full disclosure helps the people who
1.22      deraadt    44: really care about security.<p>
1.15      deraadt    45:
1.12      deraadt    46: Our security auditing team typically has between six and twelve
1.45      deraadt    47: members who continue to search for and fix new security holes.  We
                     48: have been auditing since the summer of 1996.  The process we follow to
                     49: increase security is simply a comprehensive file-by-file analysis of
                     50: every critical software component.  Flaws have been found in just
                     51: about every area of the system.  Entire new classes of security
1.80      espie      52: problems have been found during our audit, and often source code
1.45      deraadt    53: which had been audited earlier needs re-auditing with these new flaws
                     54: in mind.  Code often gets audited multiple times, and by multiple
                     55: people with different auditing skills.<p>
1.12      deraadt    56:
1.31      deraadt    57: Some members of our security auditing team work for
                     58: <a href=http://www.secnet.com>Secure Networks</a>, the company that
1.32      deraadt    59: makes the industry's premier network security scanning software
                     60: package Ballista.
1.31      deraadt    61: This company does a lot of security research, and this fits in well
1.45      deraadt    62: with the OpenBSD stance.  OpenBSD passes Ballista's tests with flying
                     63: colours.<p>
1.31      deraadt    64:
1.34      deraadt    65: Another facet of our security auditing process is its proactiveness.
1.45      deraadt    66: In most cases we have found that the determination of exploitability
                     67: is not an issue.  During our ongoing auditing process we find many
                     68: bugs, and endeavor to fix them even though exploitability is not
                     69: proven.  We fix the bug, and we move on to find other bugs to fix.  We
                     70: have fixed many simple and obvious careless programming errors in code
                     71: and only months later discovered that the problems were in fact
                     72: exploitable.  (Or, more likely someone on
                     73: <a href=http://www.geek-girl.com/bugtraq/index.html>BUGTRAQ</a>
                     74: would report that other operating systems were vulnerable to a `newly
                     75: discovered problem', and then it would be discovered that OpenBSD had
                     76: been fixed in a previous release).  In other cases we have been saved
                     77: from full exploitability of complex step-by-step attacks because we
                     78: had fixed one of the intermediate steps.  An example of where we
                     79: managed such a success is the
1.30      deraadt    80: <a href=http://www.secnet.com/sni-advisories/sni-19.bsd.lpd.advisory.html>
1.35      deraadt    81: lpd advisory from Secure Networks.</a><p>
1.29      deraadt    82:
1.45      deraadt    83: Our proactive auditing process has really paid off.  Statements like
1.35      deraadt    84: ``This problem was fixed in OpenBSD about 6 months ago'' have become
1.45      deraadt    85: commonplace in security forums like
                     86: <a href=http://www.geek-girl.com/bugtraq/index.html>BUGTRAQ</a>.<p>
1.35      deraadt    87:
1.45      deraadt    88: The most intense part of our security auditing happened immediately
1.80      espie      89: before the OpenBSD 2.0 release and during the 2.0-&gt;2.1 transition,
1.45      deraadt    90: over the last third of 1996 and first half of 1997.  Thousands (yes,
                     91: thousands) of security issues were fixed rapidly over this year-long
                     92: period; bugs like the standard buffer overflows, protocol
                     93: implementation weaknesses, information gathering, and filesystem
                     94: races.  Hence most of the security problems that we encountered were
                     95: fixed before our 2.1 release, and then a far smaller number needed
                     96: fixing for our 2.2 release.  We do not find as many problems anymore,
                     97: it is simply a case of diminishing returns.  Recently the security
                     98: problems we find and fix tend to be significantly more obscure or
                     99: complicated.  Still we will persist for a number of reasons:<p>
1.36      deraadt   100:
1.35      deraadt   101: <ul>
1.45      deraadt   102: <li>Occasionally we find a simple problem we missed earlier. Doh!
1.35      deraadt   103: <li>Security is like an arms race; the best attackers will continue
1.45      deraadt   104:        to search for more complicated exploits, so we will too.
                    105: <li>Finding and fixing subtle flaws in complicated software is
                    106:        a lot of fun.
1.35      deraadt   107: </ul>
1.15      deraadt   108:
1.14      deraadt   109: The auditing process is not over yet, and as you can see we continue
1.28      deraadt   110: to find and fix new security flaws.<p>
1.12      deraadt   111:
1.75      deraadt   112: <a name=24></a>
                    113: <p>
                    114: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>OpenBSD 2.4 Security Advisories</strong></font></h3>
                    115: These are the OpenBSD 2.4 advisories -- all these problems are solved
                    116: in <a href=anoncvs.html>OpenBSD current</a>.  Obviously, all the
                    117: OpenBSD 2.3 advisories listed below are fixed in OpenBSD 2.4.
                    118:
                    119: <ul>
1.87    ! deraadt   120: <li><a href=errata.html#ipqrace>Feb 19, 1999: ipintr() had a race in use of
        !           121:        the ipq, which could permit an attacker to cause a crash.
        !           122:        (patch included).</a>
1.86      deraadt   123: <li><a href=errata.html#accept>Feb 17, 1999: A race condition in the
                    124:        kernel between accept(2) and select(2) could permit an attacker
                    125:        to hang sockets from remote.
                    126:        (patch included).</a>
1.85      deraadt   127: <li><a href=errata.html#maxqueue>Feb 17, 1999: IP fragment assembly can
                    128:        bog the machine excessively and cause problems.
                    129:        (patch included).</a>
1.84      deraadt   130: <li><a href=errata.html#trctrap>Feb 12, 1999: i386 T_TRCTRAP handling and
                    131:        DDB interacted to possibly cause a crash.
                    132:        (patch included).</a>
1.83      deraadt   133: <li><a href=errata.html#rst>Feb 11, 1999: TCP/IP RST handling was sloppy.
                    134:        (patch included).</a>
1.81      deraadt   135: <li><a href=errata.html#bootpd>Nov 27, 1998: There is a remotely exploitable
                    136:        problem in bootpd(8). (patch included).</a>
1.82      deraadt   137: <li><a href=errata.html#termcap>Nov 19, 1998: There is a possibly locally
                    138:        exploitable problem relating to environment variables in termcap
                    139:        and curses. (patch included).</a>
1.78      deraadt   140: <li><a href=errata.html#tcpfix>Nov 13, 1998: There is a remote machine lockup
                    141:        bug in the TCP decoding kernel. (patch included).</a>
1.75      deraadt   142: </ul>
                    143:
1.58      deraadt   144: <a name=23></a>
1.12      deraadt   145: <p>
1.52      deraadt   146: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>OpenBSD 2.3 Security Advisories</strong></font></h3>
1.73      deraadt   147: These are the OpenBSD 2.3 advisories -- all these problems are solved
                    148: in <a href=anoncvs.html>OpenBSD current</a>.  Obviously, all the
                    149: OpenBSD 2.2 advisories listed below are fixed in OpenBSD 2.3.
1.53      matthieu  150:
                    151: <ul>
1.81      deraadt   152: <li><a href=errata23.html#bootpd>Nov 27, 1998: There is a remotely exploitable
                    153:        problem in bootpd(8). (patch included).</a>
1.78      deraadt   154: <li><a href=errata23.html#tcpfix>Nov 13, 1998: There is a remote machine lockup
                    155:        bug in the TCP decoding kernel. (patch included).</a>
1.76      aaron     156: <li><a href=errata23.html#fdalloc>Jul  2, 1998: setuid and setgid processes
1.72      deraadt   157:        should not be executed with fd slots 0, 1, or 2 free.
                    158:        (patch included).</a>
1.79      deraadt   159: <li><a href=errata23.html#resolver>August 31, 1998: A benign looking resolver buffer overflow bug was re-introduced accidentally (patches included).</a>
1.76      aaron     160: <li><a href=errata23.html#xlib>June 6, 1998: Further problems with the X
1.71      deraadt   161:        libraries (patches included).</a>
1.76      aaron     162: <li><a href=errata23.html#pctr>June  4, 1998: on non-Intel i386 machines, any user
1.72      deraadt   163:        can use pctr(4) to crash the machine.</a>
1.76      aaron     164: <li><a href=errata23.html#kill>May 17, 1998: kill(2) of setuid/setgid target
1.66      deraadt   165:        processes too permissive (4th revision patch included).</a>
1.76      aaron     166: <li><a href=errata23.html#immutable>May 11, 1998: mmap() permits partial bypassing
1.60      deraadt   167:        of immutable and append-only file flags. (patch included).</a>
1.76      aaron     168: <li><a href=errata23.html#xterm-xaw>May  1, 1998: Buffer overflow in xterm and Xaw
1.58      deraadt   169:        (CERT advisory VB-98.04) (patch included).</a>
1.76      aaron     170: <li><a href=errata23.html#ipsec>May  5, 1998: Incorrect handling of IPSEC packets
1.59      deraadt   171:        if IPSEC is enabled (patch included).</a>
1.53      matthieu  172: </ul>
1.9       deraadt   173:
1.58      deraadt   174: <a name=22></a>
1.9       deraadt   175: <p>
1.12      deraadt   176: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>OpenBSD 2.2 Security Advisories</strong></font></h3>
1.45      deraadt   177: These are the OpenBSD 2.2 advisories.  All these problems are solved
1.55      deraadt   178: in <a href=23.html>OpenBSD 2.3</a>.  Some of these problems
1.45      deraadt   179: still exist in other operating systems.  (The supplied patches are for
                    180: OpenBSD 2.2; they may or may not work on OpenBSD 2.1).
1.9       deraadt   181:
                    182: <ul>
1.72      deraadt   183: <li><a href=errata22.html#ipsec>May  5, 1998: Incorrect handling of IPSEC
                    184:        packets if IPSEC is enabled (patch included).</a>
                    185: <li><a href=errata22.html#xterm-xaw>May  1, 1998: Buffer overflow in xterm
                    186:        and Xaw (CERT advisory VB-98.04) (patch included).</a>
                    187: <li><a href=errata22.html#uucpd>Apr 22, 1998: Buffer overflow in uucpd
                    188:        (patch included).</a>
                    189: <li><a href=errata22.html#rmjob>Apr 22, 1998: Buffer mismanagement in lprm
                    190:        (patch included).</a>
                    191: <li><a href=errata22.html#ping>Mar 31, 1998: Overflow in ping -R (patch included).</a>
                    192: <li><a href=errata22.html#named>Mar 30, 1998: Overflow in named fake-iquery
1.59      deraadt   193:        (patch included).</a>
1.72      deraadt   194: <li><a href=errata22.html#mountd>Mar  2, 1998: Accidental NFS filesystem
                    195:        export (patch included).</a>
                    196: <li><a href=advisories/mmap>Feb 26, 1998: Read-write mmap() flaw.</a>
                    197:        Revision 3 of the patch is available <a href=errata22.html#mmap>here</a>
1.59      deraadt   198: <li><a href=advisories/sourceroute>Feb 19, 1998: Sourcerouted Packet
                    199:        Acceptance.</a>
1.50      deraadt   200:        A patch is available <a href=errata22.html#sourceroute>here</a>.
1.72      deraadt   201: <li><a href=errata22.html#ruserok>Feb 13, 1998: Setuid coredump & Ruserok()
                    202:        flaw (patch included).</a>
                    203: <li><a href=errata22.html#ldso>Feb  9, 1998: MIPS ld.so flaw (patch included).</a>
                    204: <li><a href=errata22.html#f00f>Dec 10, 1997: Intel P5 f00f lockup
1.59      deraadt   205:        (patch included).</a>
1.1       deraadt   206: </ul>
                    207:
1.58      deraadt   208: <a name=21></a>
1.21      deraadt   209: <p>
1.52      deraadt   210: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>OpenBSD 2.1 Security Advisories</strong></font></h3>
                    211: These are the OpenBSD 2.1 advisories.  All these problems are solved
                    212: in <a href=22.html>OpenBSD 2.2</a>.  Some of these problems still
                    213: exist in other operating systems.  (If you are running OpenBSD 2.1, we
                    214: would strongly recommend an upgrade to the newest release, as this
                    215: patch list only attempts at fixing the most important security
                    216: problems.  In particular, OpenBSD 2.2 fixes numerous localhost
                    217: security problems.  Many of those problems were solved in ways which
                    218: make it hard for us to provide patches).
                    219:
                    220: <ul>
1.72      deraadt   221: <li><a href=advisories/signals>Sep 15, 1997: Deviant Signals (patch included)</a>
1.59      deraadt   222: <li><a href=advisories/rfork>Aug  2, 1997: Rfork() system call flaw
                    223:        (patch included)</a>
                    224: <li><a href=advisories/procfs>Jun 24, 1997: Procfs flaws (patch included)</a>
1.52      deraadt   225: </ul>
1.51      deraadt   226:
                    227: <p>
1.21      deraadt   228: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Watching our Security Changes</strong></font></h3>
                    229: Since we take a proactive stance with security, we are continually
                    230: finding and fixing new security problems.  Not all of these problems
1.80      espie     231: get widely reported because (as stated earlier) many of them are not
1.45      deraadt   232: confirmed to be exploitable; many simple bugs we fix do turn out to
                    233: have security consequences we could not predict.  We do not have the
                    234: time resources to make these changes available in the above format.<p>
1.21      deraadt   235:
                    236: Thus there are usually minor security fixes in the current source code
                    237: beyond the previous major OpenBSD release.  We make a limited
1.45      deraadt   238: guarantee that these problems are of minimal impact and unproven
1.44      ian       239: exploitability.  If we discover that a problem definitely matters for
1.45      deraadt   240: security, patches will show up here <strong>VERY</strong> quickly.<p>
1.21      deraadt   241:
1.45      deraadt   242: People who are really concerned with security can do a number of
                    243: things:<p>
1.21      deraadt   244:
                    245: <ul>
                    246: <li>If you understand security issues, watch our
1.27      deraadt   247:        <a href=mail.html>source-changes mailing list</a> and keep an
1.23      deraadt   248:        eye out for things which appear security related.  Since
1.21      deraadt   249:        exploitability is not proven for many of the fixes we make,
                    250:        do not expect the relevant commit message to say "SECURITY FIX!".
                    251:        If a problem is proven and serious, a patch will be available
                    252:        here very shortly after.
                    253: <li>Track our current source code tree, and teach yourself how to do a
1.29      deraadt   254:        complete system build from time to time (read /usr/src/Makefile
                    255:        carefully).  Users can make the assumption that the current
                    256:        source tree always has stronger security than the previous release.
1.45      deraadt   257:        However, building your own system from source code is not trivial;
                    258:        it is nearly 300MB of source code, and problems do occur as we
                    259:        transition between major releases.
1.29      deraadt   260: <li>Install a binary <a href=snapshots.html>snapshot</a> for your
1.80      espie     261:        architecture, which are made available fairly often.  For
1.29      deraadt   262:        instance, an i386 snapshot is typically made available weekly.
1.21      deraadt   263: </ul>
                    264:
1.9       deraadt   265: <p>
1.12      deraadt   266: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Other Resources</strong></font></h3>
1.3       deraadt   267: Other security advisories that have (in the past) affected OpenBSD can
1.4       deraadt   268: be found at the <a href=http://www.secnet.com/nav1.html>Secure Networks archive</a>.
1.25      deraadt   269: Some OpenBSD audit team members worked with Secure Networks on discovering
                    270: and solving the problems detailed in some of their security advisories.
1.3       deraadt   271:
1.5       deraadt   272: <p> If you find a new security problem, you can mail it to
1.6       deraadt   273: <a href=mailto:deraadt@openbsd.org>deraadt@openbsd.org</a>.
1.7       deraadt   274: <br>
1.5       deraadt   275: If you wish to PGP encode it (but please only do so if privacy is very
1.27      deraadt   276: urgent, since it is inconvenient) use this <a href=advisories/pgpkey>pgp key</a>.
1.5       deraadt   277:
1.2       deraadt   278: <hr>
1.68      pauls     279: <a href=index.html><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.24      deraadt   280: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
                    281: <br>
1.87    ! deraadt   282: <small>$OpenBSD: security.html,v 1.86 1999/02/19 06:34:09 deraadt Exp $</small>
1.1       deraadt   283:
1.24      deraadt   284: </body>
                    285: </html>