There is a security hole in RedHat 2.1, which installs /sbin/dump suid root. The dump program makes no provisions for checking file permissions, allowing any user on the system to read arbitrary files on the system. Dump checks permissions only on the directory you specify to backup, and not on files or subdirectories. The process to exploit this is to backup the files via dump as if it was a normal backup to a temporary file, and then restore the temporary file with /sbin/restore to your own directory. The solution is simple, don't run dump suid root on your system. Program: /sbin/dump incorrectly installed Affected Operating Systems: RedHat 2.1 linux distribution Requirements: account on system Patch: chmod -s /sbin/dump Security Compromise: read arbitrary files on system Author: Dave M. (davem@cmu.edu) Synopsis: dump fails to check file permissions against user running dump, or to give up suid when backing up a filesystem. Exploit: $ /sbin/dump 0uf woot.dump DIRECTORY_FILE_TO_READ_IS_IN /-------------\ |David Meltzer| |davem@cmu.edu| /--------------------------\ |School of Computer Science| |Carnegie Mellon University| \--------------------------/ -- infiNity .oOo. Member of the infamous Guild | spreading information route .oOo. Use strong Cryptography | like it was going daemon9 .oOo. Finger for info | out of style