Re: CERT Advisory CA-97.28 - Teardrop_Land

Ron Holt (ron@CALDERA.COM)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 11:11:07 -0700

On Wed, Dec 17, 1997 at 01:26:45AM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> > > Red Hat Software
> > > ================
> > >
> > > Topic 1 - Teardrop
> > >
> > > Linux is not vulnerable.
> >
> > It's well known that versions of Linux prior to publishing of the
> > teardrop attack *were* vulnerable. The above borders on an outright
> > lie.
>
> I've already moaned. The correct answer is:
>
> Linux
>
> Prior to 2.0.31 and earlier are vulnerable to teardrop

Again - if not patched.

> 2.0.32 and above are not.

Caldera's security advisory on this subject points to a version of 2.0.29
(to maintain compatibility with the kernel from our last release) plus
Teardrop and FOOF patches (http://www.caldera.com/tech-ref/security/).

> RedHat 5.0 ships with a 2.0.31+patches that is not vulnerable. RH5.0
> update for the 2.0.32 kernel is on ftp.redhat.com

Apparently along with others, we've also recommended CERT reword the
"Linux is not vulnerable" line. The section of their advisory they added
for us clarifies the Linux situation a bit better, but as of today, the
other sections of their advisory still reads as originally worded.

FYI- the updated CERT advisory in question is at:

ftp://ftp.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-97.28.Teardrop_Land

Ron

--
Ron Holt <ron@caldera.com> [Caldera, Inc.] http://www.holt.org