Finger Vulnerabilities
Impact
A remote attacker can view arbitrary files on the system
with the privileges of the finger daemon.
Background
The finger command provides information about users on a system, such
as account names, real-life user names, and the time and place
of a user's last login.
The Problem
A vulnerability in the finger service allows a remote attacker
to view a file on the server by putting the full pathname
to the file in place of the user name in the finger request.
FreeBSD 4.1.1 is affected by this vulnerability.
Resolution
Since finger usually serves no useful purpose and
reveals potentially sensitive information about accounts on
the system, the best solution is to disable it.
Disable the finger daemon by
editing the inetd.conf file, commenting out the finger service,
and sending a HUP signal (a signal that resets a process, usually after its
configuration has been changed) to the inetd process.
If disabling the service is not possible, apply the patch
which was posted to
Bugtraq.
Where can I read more about this?
This vulnerability was posted to
Bugtraq.