CVE-2015-0235 “Ghost” Linux glibc vulnerability

For those that missed it, CVE-2015-0235 (aka Linux Ghost) was announced today which details a glibc library bug that is still on many Linux distributions. glibc is used by many applications including webservers, mail servers, php applications etc.

The specific bug was in the gethostbyname() and gethostbyname2() functions (hence “ghost” name!), so only applications that call these are potentially vulnerable. Even then, there is limited scope for exploitation, but there already has been a PoC for the Exim mail server developed so it certainly is possible (given the right conditions). Luckily, these two functions lack IPv6 support, so many newer applications and services have chosen to stop using these functions, and instead use IPv6-enabled functions instead. As has been seen however, some popular ones such as Exim do still use the older IPv4-only functions.

The bug itself has been around since 2000, and was inadvertently patched in August 2014 without realising the implications. Unfortunately since the security issues were not detected at the time, many Linux distributions didn’t back-port the patch into Linux distributions. This is what has occurred today.

Accordingly, we have now taken the following actions:

We will be taking the following actions that may result in a few minutes downtime for some sites tonight:

In addition:

In terms of customer patch cycles, we are treating this as a critical bug for some customers, and moderate (normal patch cycle) for others depending upon the attack vector surface area. All affected customers will have received an email accordingly. If you are unsure of the impact for your specific services, please raise a support ticket accordingly.

Additional useful resources:
Ars Technica Writeup on Linux Ghost
gethostbyname() vs getaddrinfo() by Erratasec

RackCorp welcomes Melbourne to our global network

We are pleased to announce high-availability premium virtual servers via in Metronode’s recently completed Melbourne 2 Data Centre located in Victoria, Australia.

This data centre is unique in that not only does it allow us to offer hosting and server products in a location geographically convenient to Southern Australian users, but provides very high security and energy efficiency features.

Our Melbourne point of presence is ideal for customers in Victoria, South Australia and especially Tasmania who are seeking the best latency and speeds to their websites.

RackCorp’s in-house developed management system and global network

Combined with Metronode’s Tier 3 Rating means our Melbourne site is ideal for customers who require a higher level of redundancy and reliability

What Exactly is a Tier 3 rating?

A specification defined by both the Uptime institute and ANSI/TIA of USA which contains formal requirements for the design of a data centre.

The rating covers items such as

• Site space and layout
• Physical infrastructure such as cabling, site security, access control and power.
• Reliability rating of the sites infrastructure
• Environmental efficiency and Management, both internal and external

Very few data centres in Australia are Tier 3 rated as a number are just designed to best-practise rather than an industry recognised specification.

Energy Efficiency – the future key to reliable web hosting

A commonly cited metric to measure a data centre is its PUE (power utilization efficiency) rating. The lower the PUE, the more efficient the cooling, better the reliability with less chance of outages and the lower the energy costs.

Metronode’s unique ‘BladeRoom’ data hall design and Melbourne’s cool climate enable a very low PUE of 1.1, one of the lowest possible and best in Australia.

RackAdmin – RackCorp’s in-house developed web hosting and network management platform

One of the key principles behind our company is emphasis on in-house custom developed solutions based on open source software.

A bespoke open source foundation provides us with

• Maximum reliability as bugs can be patched before official fixes are available
• Maximum performance thanks to streamlined and lean code
• Maximum flexibility and extensibility to meet our customers and our own specific needs
• Minimising cost and licensing which helps keeps prices competitive

These principles form the basis on which is why we built RackAdmin, the backbone of our company since foundation. A custom, in house developed management platform which provides end-user account management, option and service provisioning including reseller management and geo-location and automated billing. All within a slick and easy to use interface and an API.

Rackadmin provides is a streamlined,slick and easy to use solution to manage your web hosting needs

Read more »

.ssh authorized_keys and centos / redhat / selinux enabled Linux solution

Just a quick note that if you ever create /home or /home/user or /home/user/.ssh or /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys that you’ll need to reset the selinux contexts for the coresponding files/directories or else sshd won’t be allowed to access your authorized_keys file!

If your /home isn’t very large (and /home was what you created), the easiest way of fixing things is to run this:

restorecon -R -v /home

Otherwise if you added /home via useradd AND the user home dir then you can probably get away with just:

restorecon -R -v /home/user

This will reset the contexts placed on /home/user/.ssh/*

BIOS Firmware Update ISO for SuperMicro Boards

The use of floppy images for updating Bios images on SuperMicro boards such as the X9SCL or X9SCM are long over.  The images are far too big (8MB).  So the only way to do the bios update is to build a bootable DOS ISO, built with the firmware files.

This is easier said than done ofcourse, but here’s some simple instructions if you’re using windows that you can follow:

Step 1: FDOEMCD

Go here: http://www.fdos.org/bootdisks/
Download a tool called FDOEMCD.builder.zip
Unzip it on your local computer (don’t follow these instructions without unziping)
64-Bit OS users will have additional step to ALSO go to http://smithii.com/cdrtools/ and download cdrtools-latest.zip. Unzip it then copy the mkisofs.exe and cygwin1.dll files from the zip file and put it into the FDOEMCD.builder folder from above (replacing any existing version of these files).

Step 2: BIOS Flash Files

Go here: http://www.supermicro.com/support/bios/  (Or your equivalent for your BIOS), and download the correct version for your motherboard – warning – getting it wrong can permanentely destroy your motherboard – warning – 🙂
Unzip the contents of your bios download into the CDROOT folder.  You should have files such as AFUDOSU.SMC and AMI.bat.  If not then this tutorial isn’t for you (sorry!)

Now because the ISO will be read only, we need to shortcut the AMI.bat file a little bit….
rename AFUDOSU.SMC to AFUDOSU.EXE
create a new batch file called ami2.bat and put the following in it:
afudosu.exe %1 /FDT /MER /OPR

Now start up a dos prompt in windows and go to the corresponding FDOEMCD.builder folder and run makeiso.bat.

You now have fdoem.iso.  This is your bootable ISO with all your files on it (yay!)

Mount it using your favorite IPMI or burn it to CD and use it.  We just mount it using Supermicro’s IPMI.

Once it has booted, just run “ami2.bat x9scm2.608” (or equivalent) and away you go.

A big thanks to the guys that made FDOEMCD Builder.  Without that tool this BIOS update ISO building process would be a lot harder!

POST-INSTALL NOTE: Bios 2.00 which is on the SuperMicro website at this time seems to have a bug on some dual ethernet motherboards.  (such as the X9SCL!).  SuperMicro knows about it and has an app that you can add to the ISO as per the above instructions which can fix the ethernet port.  I don’t want to publicly make available a link to SuperMicro’s patching software but if you’re really desparate like we were then let us know….