oss-security - Using NSS (Netscape Security Services) in setuid programs

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Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:22:07 +0200
From: Florian Weimer <fw@...eb.enyo.de>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Using NSS (Netscape Security Services) in setuid programs

NSS (the crypto library from Mozilla) uses environment variables to
enable various dodgy features which no longer seem good ideas.
Obviously, this is a problem when the library is used in a context
where the attacker can set environment variables.  For instance, if a
PAM module uses NSS to establish a TLS connection for authentication
purposes, this allows a local attacker to enable features which make
it easier to impersonate the authentication server.

I couldn't find any programs which might suffer from such a problem,
though.

Please check out the Open Source Software Security Wiki, which is counterpart to this mailing list.