COMMAND

    suidperl (sperl)

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    Any  system  that  Perl  versions  4  and  5  can  be compiled and
    installed in such a way that they will be vulnerable.

PROBLEM

    suidperl  attempts  to  emulate  the  set-user-ID and set-group-ID
    features  of  the  kernel.  Depending  on  whether  the  script is
    set-user-ID,  set-group-ID,  or   both,  suidperl  achieves   this
    emulation by  first changing  its effective  user or  group ID  to
    that  of  the  original  Perl  script.  suidperl  then  reads  and
    executes the script as that  effective user or group. To  do these
    user and group  ID changes correctly,  suidperl must be  installed
    as set-user-ID root.

    On  systems  that  support  saved  set-user-ID  and  set-group-ID,
    suidperl does  not properly  relinquish its  root privileges  when
    changing its effective user and group  IDs.  On a system that  has
    the suidperl or  sperl program installed  and that supports  saved
    set-user-ID  and  saved  set-group-ID,  anyone  with  access to an
    account on the system can gain root access.

SOLUTION

    Obtain  and  install  the  appropriate  patch  according  to   the
    instructions included with the  patch. If you have  installed Perl
    from source code, you should install source code patches.  Patches
    are available from the  CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive  Network)
    archives.