GLSA 200507-13: pam_ldap and nss_ldap: Plain text authentication leak

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	pam_ldap and nss_ldap: Plain text authentication leak
Date:	07/14/2005
Bugs:	#96767
ID:	200507-13

Synopsis

pam_ldap and nss_ldap fail to restart TLS when following a referral, possibly leading to credentials being sent in plain text.

Background

pam_ldap is a Pluggable Authentication Module which allows authentication against an LDAP directory. nss_ldap is a Name Service Switch module which allows 'passwd', 'group' and 'host' database information to be pulled from LDAP. TLS is Transport Layer Security, a protocol that allows encryption of network communications.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
sys-auth/nss_ldap	< 239-r1	>= 239-r1	All supported architectures
sys-auth/pam_ldap	< 178-r1	>= 178-r1	All supported architectures

Description

Rob Holland of the Gentoo Security Audit Team discovered that pam_ldap and nss_ldap fail to use TLS for referred connections if they are referred to a master after connecting to a slave, regardless of the "ssl start_tls" ldap.conf setting.

Impact

An attacker could sniff passwords or other sensitive information as the communication is not encrypted.

Workaround

pam_ldap and nss_ldap can be set to force the use of SSL instead of TLS.

Resolution

All pam_ldap users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-auth/pam_ldap-178-r1"

All nss_ldap users should upgrade to the latest version:


    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose sys-auth/nss_ldap

References

CAN-2005-2069

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200507-13.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.