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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Forwarding for awareness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Regards,</span><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0B5AB2">Chuck Forsyth</span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> University of California Information Technology Policy & Security <UCITPS-L@LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Robert Smith<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, July 21, 2021 10:54 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> UCITPS-L@LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Outreach: Linux bugs --> Crash, Root; and then vulnerable printers CVSS 8.8<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hello ITPS,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Good late morning to you.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">3 items worthy of watching/mitigating in the greater UC environment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#7030A0">Item 1 - Nasty Linux systemd security bug revealed</span><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">Qualsys has found an ugly Linux systemd security hole that can enable any unprivileged user to crash a Linux system. The patch is available, and you should deploy it as soon as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">It works by enabling attackers to misuse the alloca() function in a way that would result in memory corruption. This, in turn, allows a hacker to crash systemd and hence the entire operating
system. Practically speaking, this can be done by a local attacker mounting a filesystem on a very long path. This causes too much memory space to be used in the systemd stack, which results in a system crash.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">Links</span>:
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/nasty-linux-systemd-security-bug-revealed/">https://www.zdnet.com/article/nasty-linux-systemd-security-bug-revealed/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><a href="https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2021/07/20/cve-2021-33910-denial-of-service-stack-exhaustion-in-systemd-pid-1">https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2021/07/20/cve-2021-33910-denial-of-service-stack-exhaustion-in-systemd-pid-1</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#7030A0">Item 2 - New Linux kernel bug lets you get root on most modern distros (local not remote)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">Unprivileged attackers can gain root privileges by exploiting a
<u>local privilege escalation (LPE)</u> vulnerability in default configurations of the Linux Kernel's filesystem layer on vulnerable devices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">As discovered by Qualys researchers, the LPE security flaw tracked as CVE-2021-33909 (dubbed Sequoia) is present in the filesystem layer used to manage user data, a feature universally
used by all major (Linux) operating systems.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">According to Qualys' research, the vulnerability impacts all Linux kernel versions released since 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">Once successfully exploited on a vulnerable system, the attackers get full root privileges on default installations of many modern distributions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">"We successfully exploited this uncontrolled out-of-bounds write, and obtained full root privileges on default installations of Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 21.04, Debian 11, and
Fedora 34 Workstation," the researchers said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">Link</span>:
<a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-linux-kernel-bug-lets-you-get-root-on-most-modern-distros/">
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-linux-kernel-bug-lets-you-get-root-on-most-modern-distros/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#7030A0">Item 3- Millions of Devices Affected by Vulnerability in HP, Samsung, Xerox Printer Drivers<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">A printer driver shipped to millions of computers since 2005 is affected by a vulnerability that can be exploited for privilege escalation, according to endpoint security company SentinelOne.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">The vulnerability was initially discovered earlier this year in a driver shipped with
<u>HP printers</u>, but a closer analysis revealed that the impacted component has also been delivered with
<u>Samsung and Xerox devices</u>. The problematic driver was developed based on open source driver samples made available by Microsoft, but the vulnerability does not appear to exist in the original sample.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><u><span style="color:#7030A0">HP has listed more than 380 HP and Samsung printer models affected by the flaw</span></u><span style="color:#7030A0">.
<u>Xerox has identified a dozen printer models affected by the vulnerability</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">HP and Xerox have released patches for the vulnerability, and consumers and enterprises have been advised to install them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">The security hole is tracked as CVE-2021-3438 and it has been assigned a
<u>high severity rating (CVSS score of 8.8).</u><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="color:#7030A0">Links (technical details in the 2<sup>nd</sup> link)</span>:
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><a href="https://www.securityweek.com/millions-devices-affected-vulnerability-hp-samsung-xerox-printer-drivers">https://www.securityweek.com/millions-devices-affected-vulnerability-hp-samsung-xerox-printer-drivers</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><a href="https://labs.sentinelone.com/cve-2021-3438-16-years-in-hiding-millions-of-printers-worldwide-vulnerable/">https://labs.sentinelone.com/cve-2021-3438-16-years-in-hiding-millions-of-printers-worldwide-vulnerable/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0070C0">Enjoy a jocund day,</span></b><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#0070C0">Robert Smith, CISSP<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#0070C0">Systemwide IT Policy Director/Security Director<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#0070C0">Information Technology Services<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0070C0">University of California Office of the President<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0070C0">(510) 587-6244 (o)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0070C0">(510) 541-8103 (m)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#0070C0"><a href="mailto:robert.smith@ucop.edu"><span style="color:#0070C0">robert.smith@ucop.edu</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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