Title: S.u.S.E. Linux useradd Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
The useradd binary included with S.u.S.E. 6.1 had a parameter, -p, not listed in the man page for the new user's password that caused a plaintext password to be written to /etc/shadow if the individual adding the account specified the plaintext.
[root@box etc]$ useradd newuser -p password
The paramater is meant for adding an encrypted password (using one of the mkpasswd utilities) at the command line.
Besides the fact that a password on the command line is a bad idea, this percieved misfeature makes the system vulnerable by writing the plaintext to /etc/shadow. It's not readable by world, but it could allow for more intelligent compromise if the administrator were to think that they could add their plaintext password on the command line. The account, of course, won't work as the user's encrypted password will not match the plaintext in /etc/shadow.
Affected Products:
- S.u.S.E. Linux 6.1.0
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