Critical Flaw Found in VNC 4.1
jblobz writes "IntelliAdmin has discovered a critical flaw that allows an attacker to control any machine running VNC 4.1. The flaw grants access without the attacker obtaining a password. The details of the vulnerability have not been released, but their website has a proof of concept that allows you to test your own VNC installation for the vulnerability"
You should tunnel unencrypted services like VNC over SSH anyway.
It says that the VNC port has to be accessible from the internet. Normally, I don't do this. I run it so that you can only connect from localhost and ssh tunnel through. It doesn't detail if it would affect an installation like this, but I doubt it.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
Surely inspection of the vulnerability test will betray the flaw to attackers?
i guess tight vnc is okay??
that is what I use
Like many services meant for users that can be expected to have a password, this is best tunneled through SSH. Access is controlled by a comparatively secure protocol and server. It's still best to patch (eg someone might get unpriviledged access to a machine and use this flaw to escalate the breach), but having a gateway that's more secure than any of the components behind it is nice. Even if the gateway itself has flaws from time to time.
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
The hole hasnt been detailed but they have a web baced proof of concept exploit? do I need to spell it out for you? SNORT the segment while you run the test and BINGO -- Got 'em!
only RealVNC is affected, which is a crappy vnc anyway. TightVnc and better yet UltraVNC are far ahead of RealVNC, neither of which are affected btw.
From the initial article preceding the proof of concept, TightVNC, UltarVNC and RealVNC 4.0 are not affected.
"I started to wonder how widespread this flaw was so I downloaded TightVNC, and UltraVNC. They are immune. Both of them reject my connection right away"
"So it looks like a flaw is in the current RealVNC 4.1.1 authentication process. I am not going to give any clues as to what it is until I can figure it out totally, and promptly let the RealVNC team know so they can resolve the issue."
So there you go. This is apparantly not a system-wide VNC issue and is a RealVNC 4.1.1 issue only. Submitter you suck.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Answering my own question, from this link:
Trolling is a art,
OMFG! There's software that allows someone to take complete control over my machine?!?!?! Gah!! What sort of bastard would write such a hideous virus/worm thingie!??!
(yeah - I know..it's a joke)
If WEP, then you should be very worried. If WPA then less worried (assuming your key is actually at all good). Also this only affects RealVNC (I believe). Also MAC filtering is pretty much only 'useful' to prevent people from accidentally connecting to your network (same with WEP).
I have FC 4 2.6.16-1.2108_FC4smp kernel with some minor kernel sweak. For this test, I have activated vnc server (why need vnc when you have ssh.. who knows..*sigh*) with default config and disabled my paranoia iptable rules for this test. Also opened up port range from 5800 to 6001 (just to prove the point) from my firewall and set to port forward to VNC machine.
I even disabled password for the account VNC display is binded to and set to no encryption for VNC.
Nothing happened. No display, nah da, nothing.
I have stable FC4 vnc package version 4.1.1-10.1.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
I'm a bit skeptical about the motives here when the comapany is in the business of selling Remote Control software. But, I have to agree with the other posters that talked about tunneling over ssh and only allowing connections from the localhost. I'm not sure why anyone would run VNC live on an untrusted network anyway.
The parent was saying that the problem was not with the lack of encryption, it was a problem with the authentication. He's not saying that SSH wouldn't solve the problem, simply that the problem would not be solved by SSH's encryption like the original poster implied, but its extra layer of authentication which is not affected by this vulnerability.
Unless I am very much mistaken SSH would be a valid work around for the problem and it has nothing o do with SSH encryption although it makes VNC use safer, it has to do with SSH tunneling. Even if the computer you are connecting to with VNC only has port 22 exposed to the internet you can still connect to the VNC server on one of the usual ports in the 59xx range. Before you can do that, however, you first have to use SSH port forwarding by to create an SSH tunnel and physically log onto the target system with the 'ssh' command using the '-L' option. That basically means that you can only get at the VNC server by creating an SSH tunnel first. This makes any authentication vulnerability of the VNC server a non issue, not that a for this bug ASAP would be a bad thing. You should always force users to use SSH when connecting via VNC and not just rely on VNC's native authentication all on it's own.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Can anyone check to see if OS X's implemtation of VNC (desktop sharing) is vulnerable?
Add the following to your ~/.ssh/config:
Then ssh into the machine to create the tunnel. You then connect to the remote VNC session with "xvncviewer localhost:1".
The comfort you demanded is now mandatory - Jello Biafra
Does anyone know if this exploit affects the VNC server that is built in to Mac OS X? I've never been clear on which mainstream software package it's based on (if any, it doesn't make it obvious either, it's just "VNC Access" and a checkbox, but I can't imagine Apple would have rewritten a VNC server from scratch if they didn't have to).
There's no real good way to set up that service with an SSH tunnel -- I think it's intended use is only on local networks when you're behind a firewall, but on the other hand there's nothing that marks it as being screamingly insecure when you go to turn it on, either (IIRC). If you want to tunnel it, or rather, if you want to limit access to connections that are coming in via an SSH tunnel, I think you have to run a regular VNC server and set it up manually.
The test page is down right now so I can't check it one way or the other, but I'd be interested to see if anyone knows what code is actually used for Apple's built-in VNC server, and whether people believe it's vunerable.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Erm... "yes, it is."
Note to self: proofread post before posting.
...it is a good idea not to run VNC all the time anyway. It'd be dangerous even if it was completely designed from the beginning with security in mind, which it wasn't. I'm not even sure that the password is sent encrypted (probably it is by now), but certainly the normal traffic is not encrypted AFAIK.
Also, there have been vulnerabilities before.
This, of course, is not good, but whether it is acceptable also depends on the purpose that you're using it for.
I installed VNC on the computers at my parents place, but it's disabled by default (but put in an obvious place in the start menu). When there is a problem, my parents can call me, I'll tell them to start the "Remote control thingy" (1 click in the start menu) and then I can reach the computer.
Not much can go wrong that way, of course someone could intercept the traffic etc. if they like to stare at default windows desktops I wish them good luck.
However, don't type the admin password over VNC, I'd guess...it's like doing 'su root' over telnet....
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
VNC has always had exploits. It was never designed to be secure. It was built for cross-platform system management on LANs, and everyplace I've ever downloaded it (except the RealVNC site) has always carried the original AT&T labs disclaimer that it is not a secure service.
RealVNC has always tried to market up their version, and has been the fastest to add new features; two common warning signs when looking at a software's level of security.
Is to post your vnc server on slashdot, thereby disabling any vnc access for you http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2006/05/vnc-flaw- proof-of-concept.html
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I've never seen the need for VNC. If you're connecting to a Windows box, use rdesktop/remote desktop. If you're connecting to a Linux/Unix machine, use ssh and tunnel X over it if you need pictures (Install Cygwin on Windows machines for X - a much better tool to install than vnc). In fact tunnel 3389 over ssh as well so as to not expose the machine outside the private network.