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New SystemD Vulnerability Discovered (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the init-to-win-it dept.

The Register reports that a new security bug in systemd "can be exploited over the network to, at best, potentially crash a vulnerable Linux machine, or, at worst, execute malicious code on the box" by a malicious host on the same network segment as the victim. According to one Red Hat security engineer, "An attacker could exploit this via malicious DHCP server to corrupt heap memory on client machines, resulting in a denial of service or potential code execution." According to the bug description, systemd-networkd "contains a DHCPv6 client which is written from scratch and can be spawned automatically on managed interfaces when IPv6 router advertisements are received."

OneHundredAndTen shared this article from the Register: In addition to Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, systemd has been adopted as a service manager for Debian, Fedora, CoreOS, Mint, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. We're told RHEL 7, at least, does not use the vulnerable component by default.

Systemd creator Leonard Poettering has already published a security fix for the vulnerable component -- this should be weaving its way into distros as we type. If you run a systemd-based Linux system, and rely on systemd-networkd, update your operating system as soon as you can to pick up the fix when available and as necessary.

6 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Really, is anyone surprised? by telek83 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is what happens when you reinvent everything you possible can, just 'cuz' but to put the icing on the cake, you run everything as root when you do it...

    1. Re:Really, is anyone surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's the thing, isn't it? The millionth windows vulnerability and still saying "well any code has bugs". Sure it does. But the rebuttal is essentially saying that all code is created equal. That's just not true. Some code is very much more equal than others.

      This guy doesn't merely write crap code, he has a track record of not playing well with others, refusing to acknowledge bugs, expecting other software projects to work around and make up for his mistakes, and so on, and so forth. Next to his track record, there are multiple reasons why his code has more and more pernicious bugs than other code. One of the reasons is as GP says: The code tries to do too much and fails to make use of built-in fall-out protection, deliberately. That's just stupid. The guy has been told, and he still thinks it's a good idea. He really believes his shit does not stink. Ergo, the guy is stupid, as well as an asshole.

      If I get a choice at all, it is clear: I do not want any of his code running on my systems if I can at all help it.

    2. Re:Really, is anyone surprised? by telek83 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While no one writes perfect code, when rewriting code for no good reason either then wanting to, the code itself should have at least be as good as the previous implementation, and as it stands dhclient6 and isc-dhcp-server do not have this problem.

      I don't have a problem with SystemD, I have a problem with anyone who tries to modernize some software but doesn't take into account of why things were written the way they were in the fist place... it's like the DNS resolve bugs... had the developers even bothered to look into bind's history, they would have never made the same mistakes... why take 1 step forward and all the steps back, just to rewrite software that has worked in the first place? This goes for any project, not just SystemD, not just Wayland or any of the "next-generation"projects... all reincarnations of software should take into the account of the previous implementations bugs, doing anything else is completely irresponsible and childish on the developers part, it sends a massage of "I can write better code then you" while in reality making all the mistakes the previous implementation made and more.

      This whole "I am better then thou" s**t should end, it only makes people look like idiots

  2. First of many by ArchieBunker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the tip of the iceburg as more spaghetti code will be found. Tell me again why a startup manager also does DNS resolution?

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:First of many by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Fascinating. Hardcoded defaults like that are a catastrophe in the making and are only done by complete and utter amateurs with no experience.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  3. Slackware: not affected. by sombragris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Slackware does not use systemd and therefore is not affected by this vulnerability.

    At least in this case, the KISS philosophy paid well.

    --
    -- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."