The full text of these alerts can be obtained from this mail server by requesting the 'CERT' and 'ERS' files. In order to keep the size of this file reasonable, it contains only advisories for 1998. The fixes mentioned in this document, when available, will be available from FixDist. The automountd daemon allows local and remote users to become root. Apply the fixes listed below.
Remote users can execute arbitrary commands as root.
The automountd daemon processes requests from the local AutoFS filesystem kernel extension. It uses local files or name service maps to locate file systems to be mounted. Because the daemon does not verify that requests are actually from the kernel extension, local non-root users and remote users can request automountd services. If the automountd daemon is active, local and remote users can cause arbitrary commands to run as root. Exploits for this problem have been made publicly available.