-=WELCOME IN MY BLOG=-
10/03/14
Playing with SQL Injection and Firewall Bypassing
18/09/11
Oracle issues rare out-of-band update for Apache DDoS vulnerability
Oracle, the giant enterprise database company - and, of course, owner of the erstwhile Sun Microsystems - has just published an out-of-band security update.This is only the fifth time Oracle has issued an alert outside its routine quarterly patch cycle since introducing its own version of Patch Tuesday at the start of 2005.
The update introduces an updated version of the Apache web server, httpd, to Oracle's Fusion Middleware and Application Server products. The former product includes Apache httpd 2.2; the latter includes Apache httpd 2.0.
Apache httpd was recently discovered to be vulnerable to an easily-exploited denial of service attack. The vulnerability, CVE-2011-3192, allowed even a single web client to trigger a huge number of simultaneous requests for large amounts of data. The flaw was exploited by sending a request for multiple parts of the same file at the same time.
(The Range feature of the HTTP protocol was intended to make it easy for web clients to restart interrupted downloads where they left off, or to permit large files to be fetched piecemeal and stitched together later. Apache httpd made it easy to misuse this feature by tolerating redundant Range requests which asked for many large and overlapping parts of a single file.)
Oracle doesn't say on its public-facing web pages exactly how it patched the flawed Apache versions in its products.
The Apache Software Foundation has actually issued two official patches for httpd 2.2 relevant to the so-called byte-range flaw. Version 2.2.20 came out at the end of August, but that patch was recently superseded by 2.2.21, which is effect a patch for the 2.2.20 patch. Apache describes 2.2.21 as "[including] fixes to the patch introduced in release 2.2.20 for protocol compliance, as well as the MaxRanges directive."
It's not clear whether Oracle's out-of-band fix includes the patch-to-the-patch, which appeared only three days ago.
And the previous official Apache httpd version, 2.0, hasn't been patched since May, when 2.0.64 came out. Oracle, one assumes, has done its own back-port of the fix it applied to 2.2.
The fact that a patch-to-the-patch was necessary will no doubt cause more conservative IT administrators to say, "See. I told you that patches should never be rushed."
In this case, however, I consider the glass half-full, not half-empty. I'd argue that the first patch greatly improved the situation, despite being imperfect. The second patch simply improved the improvement further.
However conservative you might be, if you're an Oracle user, this patch is definitely recommended in a hurry. The general unwillingness of Oracle to deviate from its once-every-three-months patch cycle spells one word, "Importance."
As Oracle itself points out, in bold characters:
Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply Security Alert fixes as soon as possible.Sysadmins, there you have it. A little something for the weekend!
nb : nakedsecurity.sophos
16/09/11
Oracle: Security flaw could bring down app servers
Oracle has issued an emergency patch to fix a vulnerability it says could bring down HTTP application servers it sells that are based on Apache 2.0 or 2.2.
Attackers can exploit the weakness remotely without a username or password, Oracle said in a security alert issued Thursday.
[ Discover what's new in business applications with InfoWorld's Technology: Applications newsletter. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld's Tech Watch blog. ]
Products impacted by the bug include Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1, versions 11.1.1.3.0, 11.1.1.4.0 and 11.1.1.5.0; Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3, version 10.1.3.5.0; and Oracle Application Server 10g Release 2, version 10.1.2.3.0.
The U.S. Government's National Vulnerability Database has assigned a CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) rating of 7.8, "indicating a complete Operating System denial of service," Oracle said.
But Oracle took issue with that assessment in its security alert.
"A complete Operating System denial of service is not possible on any platform supported by Oracle, and as a result, Oracle has given the vulnerability a CVSS Base Score of 5.0 indicating a complete denial of service of the Oracle HTTP Server but not the Operating System," it stated.
In any event, the bug is serious enough for Oracle to issue the patch outside of its usual large quarterly updates, the next of which is scheduled for Oct. 18.
nb : infoworld
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