[Fwd: CERT Advisory CA-2002-24 Trojan Horse OpenSSH Distribu…

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Author: Merley
Date:  
Subject: [Fwd: CERT Advisory CA-2002-24 Trojan Horse OpenSSH Distribution]
In case you guys didn't get this yet.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CERT Advisory CA-2002-24 Trojan Horse OpenSSH Distribution
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 16:45:01 -0400
From: CERT Advisory <>
Organization: CERT(R) Coordination Center - +1 412-268-7090
To:




Original issue date: August 1, 2002
Last revised: --
Source: CERT/CC

A complete revision history is at the end of this file.

Overview

The CERT/CC has received confirmation that some copies of the
source
code for the OpenSSH package were modified by an intruder and
contain
a Trojan horse.

We strongly encourage sites which employ, redistribute, or mirror
the
OpenSSH package to immediately verify the integrity of
their
distribution.

I. Description

The CERT/CC has received confirmation that some copies of the
source
code for the OpenSSH package have been modified by an intruder
and
contain a Trojan horse. The following advisory has been released
by
the OpenSSH development team

          http://www.openssh.com/txt/trojan.adv


The following files were modified to include the malicious code:

     openssh-3.4p1.tar.gz
     openssh-3.4.tgz
     openssh-3.2.2p1.tar.gz


These files appear to have been placed on the FTP server which
hosts
ftp.openssh.com and ftp.openbsd.org on the 30th or 31st of July,
2002.
The OpenSSH development team replaced the Trojan horse copies with
the
original, uncompromised versions at 13:00 UTC, August 1st, 2002.
The
Trojan horse copy of the source code was available long enough
for
copies to propagate to sites that mirror the OpenSSH site.

The Trojan horse versions of OpenSSH contain malicious code that
is
run when the software is compiled. This code connects to a
fixed
remote server on 6667/tcp. It can then open a shell running as
the
user who compiled OpenSSH.

II. Impact

An intruder operating from (or able to impersonate) the remote
address
specified in the malicious code can gain unauthorized remote access
to
any host which compiled a version of OpenSSH from this Trojan
horse
version of the source code. The level of access would be that of
the
user who compiled the source code.

III. Solution

We encourage sites who downloaded a copy of the OpenSSH
distribution
to verify the authenticity of their distribution, regardless of
where
it was obtained. Furthermore, we encourage users to inspect any
and
all software that may have been downloaded from the compromised
site.
Note that it is not sufficient to rely on the timestamps or sizes
of
the file when trying to determine whether or not you have a copy
of
the Trojan horse version.

Where to get OpenSSH

The primary distribution site for OpenSSH is

          http://www.openssh.com/


Sites that mirror the OpenSSH source code are encouraged to verify
the
integrity of their sources.

Verify MD5 checksums

You can use the following MD5 checksums to verify the integrity
of
your OpenSSH source code distribution:
Correct versions:

     459c1d0262e939d6432f193c7a4ba8a8 openssh-3.4p1.tar.gz
     d5a956263287e7fd261528bb1962f24c openssh-3.4p1.tar.gz.sig
     39659226ff5b0d16d0290b21f67c46f2 openssh-3.4.tgz
     9d3e1e31e8d6cdbfa3036cb183aa4a01 openssh-3.2.2p1.tar.gz
     be4f9ed8da1735efd770dc8fa2bb808a openssh-3.2.2p1.tar.gz.sig


At least one version of the modified Trojan horse distributions
was
reported to have the following checksum:
Trojan horse version:

     3ac9bc346d736b4a51d676faa2a08a57 openssh-3.4p1.tar.gz


Verify PGP signature

Additionally, distributions of the portable release of OpenSSH
are
distributed with detached PGP signatures. Note that the Trojan
horse
versions were not signed correctly, and attempts to verify
the
signatures would have failed.

As a matter of good security practice, the CERT/CC encourages users
to
verify, whenever possible, the integrity of downloaded software.
For
more information, see

          http://www.cert.org/incident_notes/IN-2001-06.html


Appendix A. - Vendor Information

This appendix contains information provided by vendors for
this
advisory. As vendors report new information to the CERT/CC, we
will
update this section and note the changes in our revision history. If
a
particular vendor is not listed below, we have not received
their
comments.

Connectiva Linux

     Conectiva Linux distributes openssh-3.4p1 as a security update. The
     distributed  copy  is  the original one and is not affected by this
     trojan.  The  detached  digital  signature is always checked before
     building third party packages.


MandrakeSoft

     MandrakeSoft  has  verified  that the openssh-3.4p1 sources used to
     build  it's  latest  updates (ref. MDKSA-2002:040-1) do not contain
     this trojan.
     _________________________________________________________________
     _________________________________________________________________


Feedback can be directed to the author: Chad Dougherty.

______________________________________________________________________

This document is available from:
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2002-24.html

______________________________________________________________________

CERT/CC Contact Information

   Email: 
          Phone: +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)
          Fax: +1 412-268-6989
          Postal address:
          CERT Coordination Center
          Software Engineering Institute
          Carnegie Mellon University
          Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
          U.S.A.


CERT/CC personnel answer the hotline 08:00-17:00 EST(GMT-5)
/
EDT(GMT-4) Monday through Friday; they are on call for
emergencies
during other hours, on U.S. holidays, and on weekends.

Using encryption

We strongly urge you to encrypt sensitive information sent by
email.
Our public PGP key is available from
http://www.cert.org/CERT_PGP.key

If you prefer to use DES, please call the CERT hotline for
more
information.

Getting security information

CERT publications and other security information are available
from
our web site
http://www.cert.org/

To subscribe to the CERT mailing list for advisories and
bulletins,
send email to . Please include in the body of
your
message

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* "CERT" and "CERT Coordination Center" are registered in the
U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.

______________________________________________________________________

   NO WARRANTY
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Software
   Engineering  Institute  is  furnished  on  an  "as is" basis.
Carnegie
   Mellon University makes no warranties of any kind, either expressed
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     _________________________________________________________________


Conditions for use, disclaimers, and sponsorship information

Copyright 2002 Carnegie Mellon University.

Revision History
August 1, 2002: Initial release