Re: SuSE Linux K-Menu YAST Control Center Priviledge Escalation Vulnerability
Jordan Pilat wrote:
A vulnerability exists in the implementation of
placing the SuSE YAST Control Center in the K Menu.
Normally, one would be required to authenticate as
root before being granted access to the YAST Control
Center. When placing the 'preferences' submenu in
the K Menu (in the 'submenu' section under the
'Menus' tab of the K menu panel preferences),
however, one can not only access, but make changes to
the options in the YAST control center without having
to authenticate as root.
You can change options, but cannot save them or install software. It
will fail silently, or with dubious error messages.
I experienced this after upgrading, when I suddenly was not able to
change network settings or install new packages when starting the yast
modules from the K-menu. I first thought that graphical yast was broken
until I realized that it never asked me for a root password.
So it's not so much a security bug as just a normal usability bug. It's
just useless to start yast without root privileges.
Stefan Seifert