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Apple Patches Kaminsky DNS Vulnerability

Posted by kdawson on Fri Aug 01, 2008 08:48 AM
from the cache-me-if-you-can dept.
Alexander Burke writes "Apple has just released Security Update 2008-005, which patches BIND against the Kaminsky DNS poisoning issue. 'This update addresses the issue by implementing source port randomization to improve resilience against cache poisoning attacks. For Mac OS X v10.4.11 systems, BIND is updated to version 9.3.5-P1. For Mac OS X v10.5.4 systems, BIND is updated to version 9.4.2-P1.' It also closes the script-based local privilege escalation vulnerabilities, the most common examples of which were ARDAgent and SecurityAgent, and addresses other less-publicized security issues as well." A few days back we noted Apple's tardiness in fixing their corner of this Net-wide issue.
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Related Stories

[+] Apple Still Has Not Patched the DNS Hole 296 comments
Steve Shockley notes an article up at TidBITS on Apple's unexplained failure to patch the DNS vulnerability that we have been discussing for a few weeks now. "Apple uses the popular Internet Systems Consortium BIND DNS server, which was one of the first tools patched, but Apple has yet to include the fixed version in Mac OS X Server, despite being notified of vulnerability details early in the process and being informed of the coordinated patch release date."
[+] Apple Clients Still Vulnerable After DNS Patch 94 comments
Glenn Fleishman sends word that SANS Institute testing indicates that, even after installing Apple's latest patch for the DNS vulnerability, Leopard desktops (not servers) are still vulnerable — or at least perpetuate risky behavior that makes exploitation easier. This matters because "With servers rapidly being patched worldwide, it's likely that the low-hanging fruit disappears, and vectors [will be] designed to attack massive numbers of clients on ISP networks."
[+] Technology: Kaminsky Bug Options Include "Do Nothing," Says IETF 134 comments
netbuzz writes "Meeting in Minneapolis this week, the Internet engineering community is debating whether to aggressively fashion and apply fixes for the so-called Kaminsky bug in the DNS discovered this summer, or to simply let its threat stand as motivation for all to move with greater speed toward DNSSEC, which is considered the best long-term security solution. Problem with the latter approach is that DNSSEC has been in the works for a decade already, no one is confident it will be universally embraced, and the Kaminsky flaw is causing real problems today.
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  • by Erie Ed (1254426) on Friday August 01 2008, @08:53AM (#24431529)
    for a moment there I was worried about what could happen, but then it hit me nothing important runs on apple servers...
    • Re:Good job apple (Score:5, Informative)

      by MacColossus (932054) on Friday August 01 2008, @10:23AM (#24433235) Journal
      Quicktime streaming server, podcast producer, Fortune 500 companies with Macs needing a decent AFP stack and Workgroup Manager to control client side privileges on Mac workstations. Another reason might be a desire not to be financially sodomized by Microsoft on CAL's but the admin has a fear of Linux due to inexperience. (Not every GUI junkie has seen Webmin, KDE, Ubuntu desktop and such). A couple of good Mac Server/Administration sites are www.afp548.com and www.macenterprise.org. Hope this has been educational.
    • Re:Good job apple (Score:4, Insightful)

      by catwh0re (540371) on Friday August 01 2008, @11:05AM (#24434005)
      other than that silly largest music retailer in the usa thing they've been toying with for a while.
      • Right, just like he said, nothing important is hosted on Apple servers.

        (Side note: Mountain climbers???)

        • by MightyYar (622222) on Friday August 01 2008, @10:49AM (#24433725)

          I don't think "tons" will get you very far when it comes to statistics.

          I don't know... have you ever priced out a ton of artists? Those things are really skinny and you really get your money's worth.

          The biggest rip-off is a ton of IT guys. You get like 1, maybe 1-1/2 in the whole damned load.

  • by PsyQo (1020321) on Friday August 01 2008, @08:56AM (#24431577)
    They might have been slow with this patch, but boy does it look good!
    • by 4D6963 (933028) on Friday August 01 2008, @09:10AM (#24431851) Homepage Journal

      They might have been slow with this patch, but boy does it look good!

      No OS X 10.3 version. Less secure than the PF workaround. Lame.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          No 10.3 version? Cry me a river. Are you going to complain about the lack of Windows 98 version as well?

          Whooosh? [slashdot.org]

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          To be fair, 10.3 was released in 2003. Windows 98 was released in....1998. A little bit of a difference there.

          Basically, you are forced to pay to get a security update that older OSes, even Microsoft ones are recieving for free (as they should). I'd be really pissed if MS forced us to pay to upgrade our Win2k3 domain controller for the update. You could have bought an Xserve in 2005 with 10.3, and not be able to get this update without upgrading your entire OS. Only 3-year support on a server? That's l

      • by maxume (22995) on Friday August 01 2008, @09:05AM (#24431765)

        They were notified in January.

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            (very few run named and few still in a configuration that would be vulnerable).

            Most Mac OS X client users do not run named, but they do use the system's stub resolver, which I believe is linked to BIND and does not randomize source ports when querying your local DNS server. This means someone could spoof replies from your DNS server in response to queries coming from your Mac. This is MUCH less of a problem than a vulnerable DNS server, because it requires a very localized attack, but it's still an issue.

  • Ahhhhhh (Score:5, Funny)

    by segedunum (883035) on Friday August 01 2008, @08:57AM (#24431599) Homepage
    The Slashdot effect that can make Apple actually patch something.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2008, @08:58AM (#24431623)

    ISC seems to think so : http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=4810

    Anybody care to test it for real using both an apple server and laptop, using dnsoarc, to get some real info?

    • by BuhDuh (1102769) on Friday August 01 2008, @09:36AM (#24432291)

      Anybody care to test it for real using both an apple server and laptop, using dnsoarc, to get some real info?

      Done! See Swa Frantzen's update at the isc [sans.org] Seems like they may have patched the server code, but the client is still using sequentially incrementing ports.

  • by Katchina'404 (85738) on Friday August 01 2008, @09:00AM (#24431665) Homepage

    As much as I love Apple, it bothers me that they do not release security patches for versions earlier than n-1 (where n is the current release).

    Mac OS X 10.3 server dates back to October 2003 (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/oct/08pantherserver.html), so it's just short of 5 years. It's not THAT old, especially for a server products that's likely to be used in some SMEs.

    Or is 10.3 not affected ?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        Well, Microsoft [microsoft.com], a company famed around here for 'planned obsolescence', managed to patch both XP and 2000. You'll note that both of those are more than 7 years old.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          I really am surprised that they patched Windows 2000. But Microsoft has never released an OS to replace XP yet. :)

  • by homesnatch (1089609) on Friday August 01 2008, @09:11AM (#24431869)

    Someone mentioned that Apple's delay was due to the patch causing a problem with some environment... Maybe Apple had to take the extra time to get it right.

    I would have preferred that Redhat did as well... The Redhat ES 4 patch for BIND left a couple of my DNS domains offline for a few hours.

    • Maybe Apple had to take the extra time to get it right.

      What, you mean, like, actually realize that any sort of hasty patch to a production system carries a risk of downtime or data loss which has to be weighed up against the risk posed by a security vulnerability?

      Nah - never attribute to rationality that which can be satisfactorally explained by incompetence.

  • leopard and syslogd (Score:5, Informative)

    by Speare (84249) on Friday August 01 2008, @09:25AM (#24432105) Homepage

    Now if only they'd fix the 100% CPU syslogd problem that's been around since Leopard's release. leopard syslogd [google.com] I don't use TimeMachine at all, so most people's theories implicating TM is probably not accurate. I'll leave the MBP on overnight and when I wake up the CPU heat is way above normal because syslogd crapped itself again. (The fan speed vs CPU heat function is also pretty sucky.) Some video glitches even start appearing when the CPU heat stays high for a while. I'm going to just kill it hourly by cron, but Apple should also get its butt in gear and just fix it.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2008, @10:02AM (#24432769)

      Fix the syslogd problem:

      launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd

      rm -rf /var/log/asl.db

      launchctl start com.apple.syslogd

    • by whyloginwhysubscribe (993688) on Friday August 01 2008, @10:19AM (#24433135)
      It must be bad - even cuil has hits relating to this: http://www.cuil.com/search?q=leopard+syslogd [cuil.com]
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Now if only they'd fix the 100% CPU syslogd problem that's been around since Leopard's release. leopard syslogd I don't use TimeMachine at all, so most people's theories implicating TM is probably not accurate.

      Dude, that problem has been around since October of 2007, when Leopard was first released. It's been fixed and I think it's related to spotlight trying to index your syslog files. Seriously, if it's still bothering you that much, google for a fix or call Apple tech support.

  • by MacColossus (932054) on Friday August 01 2008, @10:40AM (#24433587) Journal
    http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/DNS-patch-causes-BIND-blunder/0,130061744,339290928,00.htm [zdnet.com.au] Could this have been what took Apple so long? Not as entertaining as posting "Apple sucks", but worth a look nonetheless.
  • by Timothy Brownawell (627747) <tbrownaw@prjek.net> on Friday August 01 2008, @11:09AM (#24434089) Journal
    At least they're down to only using his name twice in the summary, even if one of them is in the title... I'd been starting to wonder if all the articles about the DNS bug were really just about how l33t he was for publicizing it and having it fixed.