Yellow Dog Linux Security Announcement
--------------------------------------

Package:	nautilus	
Issue Date: 	May 02, 2002	
Priority:	medium		
Advisory ID: 	YDU-20020502-6


1. 	Topic:

	Updated nautilus packages are available.


2. 	Problem:


	"The Nautilus file manager in [Yellow Dog Linux 2.2] has a
	symlink vulnerability.

        The Nautilus file manager (used by default in the GNOME desktop
        environment) writes metadata files containing information about
	files and directories that have been visited in the file manager.
	The metadata file code in [Yellow Dog Linux 2.2] can be tricked
	into chasing a symlink and overwriting the symlink target.

	The errata packages repair this problem in two ways. First they
	create metadata files using mkstemp() and then renaming the files,
	instead of creating the files in-place with a fixed filename.
	This patch in the errata packages was backported from the latest
	upstream version of Nautilus on cvs.gnome.org.

	Second, Nautilus used to have a preference to store metadata only
	in the user's home directory, rather than in each directory being
	browsed. This errata removes the preference and hardcodes its value
	to always use the home directory. This disables the shared-metadata
	functionality, so if two users browse the same directory they may see
	different icons, emblems, and so forth.


	This problem should only be exploitable locally (filesystem access
	is needed to create a malicious symlink). If Nautilus is not run
	as root, the impact should be limited to overwriting files that
	unprivileged users have access to. If Nautilus is run as root,
	a malicious symlink could overwrite system-critical files such
	as /etc/passwd with Nautilus metadata.


	The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)
	has assigned the name CAN-2002-0157 to this issue. The BUGTRAQ ID
	for this issue is 4373."
	(from the Red Hat Advisory)


3. 	Solution:

   	a) Updating via yup...
   	We suggest that you use the Yellow Dog Update Program (yup)
   	to keep your system up-to-date. The following command(s) will
   	automatically retrieve and install the fixed version of
   	this update onto your system:

		yup update nautilus 

   	b) Updating manually...
   	The update can also be retrieved manually from our ftp site
   	below along with the rpm command that should be used to install
   	the update.  (Please use a mirror site)

   		ftp://ftp.yellowdoglinux.com/pub/yellowdog/updates/yellowdog-2.2/ppc/
		rpm -Fvh nautilus-*1.0.6-12a.ppc.rpm

4. Verification

MD5 checksum			  Package
--------------------------------  ----------------------------
c54b02bdb1a531fa574da6cee9626e51  ppc/nautilus-1.0.6-12a.ppc.rpm
0b7cb71732219368cafeeb4d874d03db  ppc/nautilus-devel-1.0.6-12a.ppc.rpm
d9d160371eedf8f399081a7bd2e549fe  ppc/nautilus-mozilla-1.0.6-12a.ppc.rpm
8edbf793ed4531333460487a70119a6d  SRPMS/nautilus-1.0.6-12a.src.rpm

If you wish to verify that each package has not been corrupted or tampered with,
examine the md5sum with the following command: rpm --checksig --nogpg filename


5. Misc.

Terra Soft has setup a moderated mailing list where these security, bugfix, and package
enhancement announcements will be posted. See http://lists.yellowdoglinux.com/ for more
information.

For information regarding the usage of yup, the Yellow Dog Update Program, see 
http://http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/solutions/ydl_general/yup.shtml