Details of Security Fixes in Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) Released

According to Apple Panther contains the following security enhancements:

Finder: Fixes CAN-2003-0876 where folder permissions may not be
preserved when copying a folder from a mounted volume such as a
disk image. Credit to Dave G. from @stake, Inc. for finding this
issue.

Kernel: Fixes CAN-2003-0877 where if a system is running with core
files enabled, a user with interactive shell access can overwrite
arbitrary files, and read core files created by root-owned
processes. This may result in sensitive information such as
authentication credentials being compromised. Core file creation is
disabled by default on Mac OS X. Credit to Dave G. from @stake,
Inc. for finding this issue.

slpd: Fixes CAN-2003-0878 when Personal File Sharing is enabled, the
slpd daemon may create a root-owned file in the /tmp directory.
This could overwrite an existing file and allow a user to gain
elevated privileges. Personal File Sharing is off by default in Mac
OS X. Credit to Dave G. from @stake, Inc. for finding this issue.

Kernel: Fixes CAN-2003-0895 where it may be possible for a local user
to cause the Mac OS X kernel to crash by specifying a long command
line argument. The machine will reboot on its own after several
minutes. Credit to Dave G. from @stake, Inc. for finding this
issue.

ktrace: Fixes CVE-2002-0701 a theoretical exploit when ktrace is
enabled through the KTRACE kernel option, a local user might be
able to obtain sensitive information. No specific utility is
currently known to be vulnerable to this particular problem.

nfs: Fixes CVE-2002-0830 for the Network File System where a remote
user may be able to send RPC messages that cause the system to lock
up.

zlib: Addresses CAN-2003-0107. While there were no functions in Mac OS
X that used the vulnerable gzprintf() function, the underlying
issue in zlib has been fixed.

gm4: Fixes CAN-2001-1411 a format string vulnerability in the gm4
utility. No setuid root programs relied on gm4 and this fix is a
preventative measure against a possible future exploit.

OpenSSH: Fixes CAN-2003-0386 where "from=" and "user@hosts"
restrictions are potentially spoofable via reverse DNS for
numerically specified IP addresses. Mac OS X 10.3 also incorporates
prior fixes released for OpenSSH, and the version of OpenSSH as
obtained via the "ssh -V" command is:
OpenSSH_3.6.1p1+CAN-2003-0693, SSH protocols 1.5/2.0, OpenSSL
0x0090702f

nidump: Fixes CAN-2001-1412 where the nidump utility provides access
to the crypted passwords used to authenticate logins.

System Preferences: Fixes CAN-2003-0883 where after authenticating
with an administrator password, the system will continue to allow
access to secure Preference Panes for a short period of time. This
could allow a local user to access Preference Panes that they would
not normally be able to use. In Mac OS X 10.3 Security
preferences, there is now a choice to "Require password to unlock
each secure system preference". Credit to Anthony Holder for
reporting this issue.

TCP timestamp: Fixes CAN-2003-0882 where the TCP timestamp is
initialized with a constant number. This could allow a person to
discover how long the system has been up based upon the ID in TCP
packets. In Mac OS X 10.3, the TCP timestamp is now initialized
with a random number. Credit to Aaron Linville for reporting this
issue and submitting a fix via the Darwin open source program.

Mail: Fixes CAN-2003-0881 in the Mac OS X Mail application, if an
account is configured to use MD5 Challenge Response, it will
attempt to login using CRAM-MD5 but will silently fall back to
plain-text if the hashed login fails. Credit to Chris Adams for
reporting this issue.

Dock: Fixes CAN-2003-0880 when Full Keyboard Access is turned on via
the Keyboard pane in System Preferences, Dock functions can be
accessed blindly from behind Screen Effects.

Other security features: Mac OS X 10.3 also contains a number of other
security features.