(hhp) Discus advisory. (hhp)
---------------------------------------------------
	Discus (Free discussion for your Web Site!)
at http://www.chem.hope.edu/discus/ has a directory
and  file  permission  problem.  The code is really
messy  and  they  need to learn file and permission
operations  better.  The source determines the mode
of  the  directories  and files from other sources:
Line:   533   in  discus3_01/source/src-board-setup
which  is  a  totally bad idea being that no matter
what,  the  private  files  should not be +r... ie,
the  *.txt's  and so on.  I  contacted the software
programmers  and  hope  they recognize this problem
being  that  the files are so open and easy to find
with any public search engines.  I  noticed quite a
few  servers  are  using  this software and I would
guestimate  about  80%  or  more are  vulnerable to
getting  thier  userfile  cracked  and their server
rooted.
	So   my   suggestion  to  people using this
software  is  check your modes or either wait for a
new release of the software.  I did not want to get
into making a patch being that they need to totally
redo some of their methods.

elaich - 2:30:15am CST 4/24/1999
--------------------------------------------
elaich of the hhp.
Email: hhp@hhp.hemp.net / pigspigs@yahoo.com
Voice: 1800-Rag-on-gH pin: The-hhp-crew
Web: http://hhp.hemp.net
--------------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 19:50:34 -0400
From: Elaich Of Hhp <hhp@NS.SUSPEND.NET>
To: BUGTRAQ@netspace.org
Subject: Re: Discus advisory.

On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, Ian R. Justman wrote:
> Showed this to my boss because one of our customers (one whose account we
> are currently reviewing) runs this script.
>
> If this is running under Linux, FreeBSD or any system with a decent shadow
> password system or something similar AND a sanely-configured web server,
> e.g. with CGIwrap, any internal wrappering which runs scripts as the owner
> of the script like any later version of Apache with the integrated setuid
> wrapper, or at the very least just outright running scripts as an
> arbitrary unprivileged user, there is no problem.  You can't read
> /etc/shadow|/etc/master.passwd|/etc/whatever if you're not a privileged
> user.  ;)
>
> --Ian.

Well I never said that /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd etc. etc. were readable.
and the stuff you stated above is not the problem here.  The software
creates the directory with 666 perms. In that directory there is a
users.txt and a admin.txt which both contain crypt(3) passwds.

Here is one of the simple replies I have recieved.

- Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 09:32:23 -0400
- From: mwerneburg@stardata.ca
- To: hhp@hhp.hemp.net
- Subject: Re: Discus advisory.
-
- Good post.  I'm administering a discus installation and was appalled to
- see files like passwd.txt with 666 perms.  Thanks for the heads-up!


-elaich

-----------------------------------------
elaich of the hhp.            hhp-1999(c)
Email:  hhp@hemp.net
Web:   http://hhp.hemp.net/
Voice: 1-800-Rag-on-gH pin: The-hhp-crew
hhp-ms: hhp.hemp.net, port:7777, pass:hhp
-----------------------------------------

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

Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 11:36:58 -0400
From: Todd C. Campbell <toddc@net-link.net>
To: BUGTRAQ@netspace.org
Subject: Re: Discus advisory.

Elaich Of Hhp wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, Ian R. Justman wrote:
> > Showed this to my boss because one of our customers (one whose account we
> > are currently reviewing) runs this script.
> >
> > If this is running under Linux, FreeBSD or any system with a decent shadow
> > password system or something similar AND a sanely-configured web server,
> > e.g. with CGIwrap, any internal wrappering which runs scripts as the owner
> > of the script like any later version of Apache with the integrated setuid
> > wrapper, or at the very least just outright running scripts as an
> > arbitrary unprivileged user, there is no problem.  You can't read
> > /etc/shadow|/etc/master.passwd|/etc/whatever if you're not a privileged
> > user.  ;)
> >
> > --Ian.
>
> Well I never said that /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd etc. etc. were readable.
> and the stuff you stated above is not the problem here.  The software
> creates the directory with 666 perms. In that directory there is a
> users.txt and a admin.txt which both contain crypt(3) passwds.
>

Where this is true, and it is something that you should be careful of. The
admin directory where these files are found is mentioned in the documentation.
They do tell you to make sure the directory is not web readable. I took this as
a tip off, and made the appropriate changes. I would think any good
administrator would have done the same.

-Todd