RHSA-2003:074: sendmail security update

Description

Updated Sendmail packages are available to fix a vulnerability that may allow remote attackers to gain root privileges by sending a carefully crafted message. [Updated March 18 2003] Added packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS.

Sendmail is a widely used Mail Transport Agent (MTA) which is included in all Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions. During a code audit of Sendmail by ISS, a critical vulnerability was uncovered that affects unpatched versions of Sendmail prior to version 8.12.8. A remote attacker can send a carefully crafted email message which, when processed by sendmail, causes arbitrary code to be executed as root. We are advised that a proof-of-concept exploit is known to exist, but is not believed to be in the wild. Since this is a message-based vulnerability, MTAs other than Sendmail may pass on the carefully crafted message. This means that unpatched versions of Sendmail inside a network could still be at risk even if they do not accept external connections directly. All users are advised to update to these erratum packages which contain a backported patch to correct this vulnerability. Red Hat would like to thank Eric Allman for his assistance with this vulnerability.