[gentoo-announce] [ GLSA 200810-02 ] Portage: Untrusted search path local root vulnerability

[news 28]

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200810-02

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http://security.gentoo.org/

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Severity: High

Title: Portage: Untrusted search path local root vulnerability

Date: October 09, 2008

Bugs: #239560

ID: 200810-02

 

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Synopsis

========

 

A search path vulnerability in Portage allows local attackers to

execute commands with root privileges if emerge is called from

untrusted directories.

 

Background

==========

 

Portage is Gentoo's package manager which is responsible for

installing, compiling and up[censored] all packages on the system through

the Gentoo rsync tree.

 

Affected packages

=================

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected

-------------------------------------------------------------------

1 sys-apps/portage < 2.1.4.5 >= 2.1.4.5

 

Description

===========

 

The Gentoo Security Team discovered that several ebuilds, such as

sys-apps/portage, net-mail/fetchmail or app-editors/leo execute Python

code using "python -c", which includes the current working directory in

Python's module search path. For several ebuild functions, Portage did

not change the working directory from emerge's working directory.

 

Impact

======

 

A local attacker could place a specially crafted Python module in a

directory (such as /tmp) and entice the root user to run commands such

as "emerge sys-apps/portage" from that directory, resulting in the

execution of arbitrary Python code with root privileges.

 

Workaround

==========

 

Do not run "emerge" from untrusted working directories.

 

Resolution

==========

 

All Portage users should upgrade to the latest version:

 

# cd /root

# emerge --sync

# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/portage-2.1.4.5"

 

NOTE: To upgrade to Portage 2.1.4.5 using 2.1.4.4 or prior, you must

run emerge from a trusted working directory, such as "/root".

 

References

==========

 

[ 1 ] CVE-2008-4394

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-4394

 

Availability

============

 

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at

the Gentoo Security Website:

 

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200810-02.xml

 

Concerns?

=========

 

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the

confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost

importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to

security ( -at -) gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at

http://bugs.gentoo.org.

 

License

=======

 

Copyright 2008 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text

belongs to its owner(s).

 

The contents of this document are licensed under the

Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5