*DESCRIPTION*
A security vulnerability was recently discovered by Nicola Soranzo at The
Genome Analysis Centre that would allow unauthorized access to Galaxy
accounts on Galaxy servers using the LDAP authentication framework plugin.
This is due to the fact that LDAP may be configured to allow anonymous
binds, and the LDAP plugin does not check that binding with the provided
username/password was not anonymous.
*AFFECTED VERSIONS*
The authentication framework is a new feature as of the 15.05 Galaxy
release, so earlier versions are not affected. In versions 15.05 and later,
the LDAP plugin is not used by default, so only Galaxy servers which have
been configured to use this new functionality are affected. Galaxy servers
using upstream delegated authentication (where authentication is performed
by the proxy server, e.g. Apache or nginx) are not affected.
*IMPACT*
Administrators of affected servers are STRONGLY encouraged to update
immediately, as the vulnerability allows unauthorized access to Galaxy
accounts.
*INSTRUCTIONS*
To apply the fix, first identify your current Galaxy release version using
the `git branch` or `hg branch` commands. If you are on a 'release_YY.MM'
branch, you can update with:
% git pull
or:
% hg pull -u
The process above can also be used to update to the 15.07 release if you
are on the 'master' git branch or the 'stable' hg branch. If you are on the
'master'/'stable' branch and wish to remain on your current Galaxy major
release, check the 'lib/galaxy/version.py' file to determine your major
release version, then update to the appropriate branch:
% git checkout -b release_YY.MM origin/release_YY.MM
% git pull
or:
% hg pull
% hg update release_YY.MM
For the changes to take effect, YOU MUST RESTART ALL GALAXY SERVER
PROCESSES.
On behalf of the Galaxy Committers,
--nate