5 - RHSA-2009:0010

Problem Description:

An updated squirrelmail package that resolves various security issues is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4 and 5.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 - noarch Red Hat Desktop version 3 - noarch Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 - noarch Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 - noarch Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 - noarch Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 - noarch Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 - noarch Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 - noarch RHEL Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) - noarch Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - noarch

3. Description:

SquirrelMail is an easy-to-configure, standards-based, webmail package written in PHP. It includes built-in PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP protocols, and pure HTML 4.0 page-rendering (with no JavaScript required) for maximum browser-compatibility, strong MIME support, address books, and folder manipulation.

Ivan Markovic discovered a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw in SquirrelMail caused by insufficient HTML mail sanitization. A remote attacker could send a specially-crafted HTML mail or attachment that could cause a user's Web browser to execute a malicious script in the context of the SquirrelMail session when that email or attachment was opened by the user. (CVE-2008-2379)

It was discovered that SquirrelMail allowed cookies over insecure connections (ie did not restrict cookies to HTTPS connections). An attacker who controlled the communication channel between a user and the SquirrelMail server, or who was able to sniff the user's network communication, could use this flaw to obtain the user's session cookie, if a user made an HTTP request to the server. (CVE-2008-3663)

Note: After applying this update, all session cookies set for SquirrelMail sessions started over HTTPS connections will have the "secure" flag set. That is, browsers will only send such cookies over an HTTPS connection. If needed, you can revert to the previous behavior by setting the configuration option "$only_secure_cookies" to "false" in SquirrelMail's /etc/squirrelmail/config.php configuration file.

Users of squirrelmail should upgrade to this updated package, which contains backported patches to correct these issues.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

5. Bugs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/):

464183 - CVE-2008-3663 squirrelmail: session hijacking - secure flag not set for HTTPS-only cookies 473877 - CVE-2008-2379 squirrelmail: XSS issue caused by an insufficient html mail sanitation