Subject: [Usenet RKT] (Fwd) INN-1.7 innd doesn't response HEAD correctly
From: "Forrest J. Cavalier III" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 09:04:39 -0400

For Usenet RKT subscribers.....

....Additional non-critical defect in innd discovered.....

Discovered by: Yoshiro YONEYA <[email-masked]>
               as reported by the message (excerpted below.)

Defect in: the innd implementation of the "HEAD" command.
           innd/nc.c

Versions: 1.5.1corr and derivatives, including 1.7

Symptoms: In the very rare case of a connection sending
          the "HEAD" command to innd, the connection may hang.

	  This is not a security vulnerability.

          The "HEAD" command in nnrpd (readers) is not affected.

Background: In the normal mechanism of feeding, the HEAD command
            is never used, as far as I am aware.  So the defect
            would only be triggered by receiving a connection
            from a machine in hosts.nntp which was using very odd
            or experimental software, or telnet for debugging
            purposes.

            The NNTP "HEAD" command is described at:
		http://www.mibsoftware.com/userkt/nntp/0013.htm

Recommendations: Since this is not a security threat, and is only
            triggered in rare combinations of software, you may
            patch at your leisure.

An "enhanced" version of the patch is attached.  It credits
the author, and also fixes a similar defect in the NCarticle() 
command.  (The NCarticle() command is normally permanently disabled,
but fixing the defect at the same time is appropriate.)

This message, including the patch, will also be available at:
   http://www.mibsoftware.com/userkt/inn/patches/nc971031.msg

This message has been brought to you as a result of your
quarterly subscription.  Thank you.

Forrest Cavalier, Mib Software, originator of INN 1.7

------- Forwarded Message Follows.  the patch included in the
        message was removed and an enhanced patch appears in the
        attachment. 
-------
To:            [email-masked]
Subject:       INN-1.7 innd doesn't response HEAD correctly
Date:          Fri, 31 Oct 1997 19:51:17 +0900
From:          Yoshiro YONEYA <[email-masked]>

Dear INN workers

  I've just started using INN-1.7 and found a bug in innd.
When I send innd `HEAD <Message-ID>', it responses only
result code `221', and headers appear after next command.
I made following patch to fix it. Is this correct?

[patch removed, enhancement below....]

-- 
Yoshiro YONEYA <[email-masked]>
NTT Software Corporation

--- innd/nc.c.orig	Tue Oct 07 07:18:04 1997
+++ innd/nc.c	Fri Oct 31 08:36:52 1997
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@
     }
 
     /* Write the terminator. */
-    WCHANappend(cp, NCdotterm, STRLEN(NCdotterm));
+    NCwritereply(cp, NCdot); /* Was WCHANappend.  fixed 1997/10/31 [email-masked] */
 }
 #endif	/* 0 */
 
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@
     }
 
     /* Write the terminator. */
-    WCHANappend(cp, NCdotterm, STRLEN(NCdotterm));
+    NCwritereply(cp, NCdot); /* Was WCHANappend.  fixed 1997/10/31 [email-masked] */
 }