[HECnet] Security alert about SMG

I suppose you all have read about the VMS security bug that is being discussed since about a week on comp.os.vms. Anyway, having read nothing about it here, I thought useful to warn all the system administrators who read this mailing list and which have VMS nodes with guest access on HECnet and/or Internet about potential security treats to which their systems are exposed. All VMS versions (VAX since V5.x, AXP and I64 since their beginning) are exposed to a local exploit that allows any unprivileged user to gain almost any privilege! The problem lies in SYS$SHARE:SMGSHR.EXE which is used for CLI processing in many system utilites installed with high privileges (i.e. INSTALL.EXE, SYSMAN.EXE, SHWCLSTR.EXE, etc.). HP has just released mandatory patches for some versions while others, notably all the VAX and older Alpha ones, are still exposed. Look for kits named like VMSxxx_SMGRTL-V0100 in ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches A partial solution for those systems for which there isn't a patch appears to be an ACL to deny access to some utilities by non trusted users. The list that follows contains the names of those images that I think most dangerous, but I will be "happy" to add more names if you discover them: AUTHORIZE.EXE INSTALL.EXE NCP.EXE SHWCLSTR.EXE SYSMAN.EXE TCPIP$FTP_CLIENT.EXE (VAX) TCPIP$TELNET.EXE (AXP) TCPIP$UCP.EXE Please note that I'm NOT sure about this, i.e. there may be a workaround for this workaround which I haven't thought of. G.