Debian DSA-044-1 : mailx

#%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 70300

#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were  
# extracted from Debian Security Advisory DSA-044. The text 
# itself is copyright (C) Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
#

include('deprecated_nasl_level.inc');
include('compat.inc');

if (description)
{
  script_id(14881);
  script_version("1.24");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2025/04/02");
  script_bugtraq_id(2457);
  script_xref(name:"DSA", value:"044");

  script_name(english:"Debian DSA-044-1 : mailx");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The mail program (a simple tool to read and send email) as distributed
with Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 has a buffer overflow in the input parsing
code. Since mail is installed setgid mail by default this allowed
local users to use it to gain access to mail group.

Since the mail code was never written to be secure fixing it properly
would mean a large rewrite. Instead of doing this we decided to no
longer install it setgid. This means that it can no longer lock your
mailbox properly on systems for which you need group mail to write to
the mailspool, but it will still work for sending email.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"http://www.debian.org/security/2001/dsa-044");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"This has been fixed in mailx version 8.1.1-10.1.5. If you have
suidmanager installed you can also make this manually with the
following command:suidregister /usr/bin/mail root root 0755");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"risk_factor", value:"High");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2001/03/13");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2004/09/29");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:mailx");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:2.2");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"Debian Local Security Checks");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2004-2025 Tenable Network Security, Inc.");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/Debian/release", "Host/Debian/dpkg-l");

  exit(0);
}


include("audit.inc");
include("debian_package.inc");


if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (!get_kb_item("Host/Debian/release")) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Debian");
if (!get_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);


flag = 0;
if (deb_check(release:"2.2", prefix:"mailx", reference:"8.1.1-10.1.5")) flag++;

if (flag)
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_hole(port:0, extra:deb_report_get());
  else security_hole(0);
  exit(0);
}
else audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, "affected");