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Date:      Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:17:59 -0600
From:      Antonio Olivares <olivares14031@gmail.com>
To:        Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: No updates needed to update system to 8.2-RELEASE-p6 but still on 8.2-RELEASE-p3
Message-ID:  <CAJ5UdcPAUjet58p5AJrj5VUyO-Vdhz1S4PkBNC0=4M2dMUe=hw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4F40CD81.1000708@infracaninophile.co.uk>
References:  <CAJ5UdcOobT8jmUM7KpweU1sjie4P8HvQcA0vNMQdO66ZTHXHkA@mail.gmail.com> <201202190204.q1J24gJx080884@mail.r-bonomi.com> <CAJ5UdcO%2Bx6oEuEWL4%2Bfh1TanEv1vCCnOSi%2BaZ-bcQBsehuqKsA@mail.gmail.com> <4F40CD81.1000708@infracaninophile.co.uk>

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On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 4:22 AM, Matthew Seaman
<m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote:
> On 19/02/2012 02:06, Antonio Olivares wrote:
>> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 8:04 PM, Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com=
> wrote:
>>>
>>> Antonio,
>>> =A0The 'upgrade' from _P5_ to P6 did not touch the kernel, hence the ke=
rnel ID
>>> did not change.
>>>
>>> =A0Going from P3 =A0you should have seen a kernel update.
>>>
>>> =A0what do you see if you do "strings /boot/kernel/kernel |grep 8"
>>
>> It is a big file so I'll paste it to pastebin temporarily:
>>
>> http://pastebin.com/K1PsTa0P
>
> Heh. =A0The interesting bit is on line 4301 -- the last line of that
> output. =A0A slightly more selective grep term would have been a good ide=
a.
>
> Anyhow, that shows the kernel on your system is 8.2-RELEASE-p3. =A0Which
> implies that something ain't right somewhere.
>
> Four possibilities, roughly in order of severity:
>
> =A0 1) None of the security patches between p3 and p6 did actually
> =A0 =A0 =A0touch the kernel. =A0You can tell if this was the case by look=
ing
> =A0 =A0 =A0at the list of modified files in the security advisory. =A0The
> =A0 =A0 =A0kernel is affected if any files under sys have been
> =A0 =A0 =A0modified other than src/sys/conf/newvers.sh
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0The last advisory that did touch the kernel was
> =A0 =A0 =A0http://security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-11:05.unix.a=
sc
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0which should have given you 8.2-RELEASE-p4. =A0However -- see
> =A0 =A0 =A0below.
>
> =A0 2) An oversight in the freebsd-update process upstream meaning that
> =A0 =A0 =A0the operational patches were applied, but not the changes to t=
he
> =A0 =A0 =A0kernel version number when the replacement kernel was compiled=
.
> =A0 =A0 =A0Unlikely, as newvers.sh is always updated on each of the secur=
ity
> =A0 =A0 =A0branches even if the update doesn't touch the kernel.
>
> =A0 3) You've told freebsd-update not to touch your kernel. =A0Unlikely,
> =A0 =A0 =A0and not in the default config, but useful where people need to
> =A0 =A0 =A0use a custom kernel and maintain the rest of the system with
> =A0 =A0 =A0freebsd-update.
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0In this case, you'ld have modified /etc/freebsd-update.conf to
> =A0 =A0 =A0change:
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Components src world kernel
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0to read:
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Components src world
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0Also you should be expecting to have to rebuild your kernel fr=
om
> =A0 =A0 =A0sources, so I doubt this is the case.

/etc/freebsd-update.conf has:

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3Dline 1 col 0 lines from top 1 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
# $FreeBSD: src/etc/freebsd-update.conf,v 1.6.2.2.6.1 2010/12/21 17:09:25 k=
ensmi

# Trusted keyprint.  Changing this is a Bad Idea unless you've received
# a PGP-signed email from <security-officer@FreeBSD.org> telling you to
# change it and explaining why.
KeyPrint 800651ef4b4c71c27e60786d7b487188970f4b4169cc055784e21eb71d410cc5

# Server or server pool from which to fetch updates.  You can change
# this to point at a specific server if you want, but in most cases
# using a "nearby" server won't provide a measurable improvement in
# performance.
ServerName update.FreeBSD.org

# Components of the base system which should be kept updated.
Components src world kernel

..... removed to save space ....

>
> =A0 4) The kernel wasn't patched properly and hasn't been updated and
> =A0 =A0 =A0you're still vulnerable.
>
> Now, I believe that in fact the situation is in fact as described in
> option (1) -- none of the patches since p3 have touched the kernel
> distributed through freebsd-update. =A0(2) and (4) can be discounted -- i=
f
> such egregious mistakes had been made, they would long ago have been
> noticed and corrected.
>
> Here is the thing I alluded to under option (1). =A0The security patch fo=
r
> the unix domain socket problem came out in two chunks. =A0There was an
> original patch to fix the actual security problem, then a later followup
> patch to fix a bug that exposed in the linux emulation layer. =A0It is
> possible to tell this from the text of the advisory as it exists at the
> moment, but you might not see it unless you are looking for it. =A0The
> important bit of text is this:
>
> =A0NOTE: The patch distributed at the time of the original advisory fixed
> =A0the security vulnerability but exposed the pre-existing bug in the
> =A0linux emulation subsystem. =A0Systems to which the original patch was
> =A0applied should be patched with the following corrective patch, which
> =A0contains only the additional changes required to fix the newly-
> =A0exposed linux emulation bug:
>
> Given that the second part of the patch was actually not a security fix,
> there would not have been a modified kernel distributed. =A0So you got a
> bundle of three advisories issued together on 2011-09-28 resulting in
> FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p3. =A0Then later on, at 2011-10-04 a further update
> was issued modifying FreeBSD-SA-11:05-unix and technically taking the
> system to FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p4. =A0However, as this was not a security
> fix, it was not applied to the freebsd-update distribution channel. =A0As
> none of the updates since then have touched the kernel, it will still
> show -p3 even though you are in fact fully patched against all known
> security problems.

I hope this is the case, but that -p3 makes me think?  I am hesistant
to move to 9.0-RELEASE as of yet.  There will apparently be an
8.3-RELEASE and I am not sure whether I have to rebuild all ports if I
update to newer release.  I have read some places that one does not
have to rebuild all ports, and just install compat8.x/ special port.
In FreeBSD Handbook, it still recommends to rebuild all ports.  It
took me a while to get going last time I moved from 8.1-RELEASE to
8.2-RELEASE, so I am hesistant to do it :(   And not being sure about
this, I am in the thinking process of what should I do.

>
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Cheers,
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Matthew
>
> --
> Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 7 Pri=
ory Courtyard
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Flat 3
> PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey =A0 =A0 Ramsgate
> JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Kent, CT1=
1 9PW
>

Thank you very much for your kind explanation and hopefully I am in
the (4) category.  How does one know when a new 8.2-RELEASE-pX, has
been released?  where X is a number >=3D 6?

Regards,


Antonio



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