[slackware-security] xdg-utils (SSA:2009-033-01)

[news 28]

 

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[slackware-security] xdg-utils (SSA:2009-033-01)

 

New xdg-utils packages are available for Slackware 12.2 and -current to

fix security issues. Applications that use /etc/mailcap could be tricked

into running an arbitrary script through xdg-open, and a separate flaw in

xdg-open could allow the execution of arbitrary commands embedded in untrusted

input provided to xdg-open.

 

More details about the issues may be found in the Common

Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database:

 

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-0068

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-0386

 

 

Here are the details from the Slackware 12.2 ChangeLog:

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patches/packages/xdg-utils-1.0.2-noarch-3_slack12.2.tgz:

This update fixes two security issues. First, use of xdg-open in

/etc/mailcap was found to be unsafe -- xdg-open passes along downloaded files

without indicating what mime type they initially presented themselves as,

leaving programs further down the processing chain to discover the file type

again. This makes it rather trivial to present a script (such as a .desktop

file) as a document type (like a PDF) so that it looks safe to click on in a

browser, but will result in the execution of an arbitrary script. It might

be safe to send files to trusted applications in /etc/mailcap, but it does

not seem to be safe to send files to xdg-open in /etc/mailcap.

This package will comment out calls to xdg-open in /etc/mailcap if they are

determined to have been added by a previous version of this package.

If you've made any local customizations to /etc/mailcap, be sure to check

that there are no uncommented calls to xdg-open after installing this update.

Thanks to Manuel Reimer for discovering this issue.

For more information, see:

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-0068

Another bug in xdg-open fails to sanitize input properly allowing the

execution of arbitrary commands. This was fixed in the xdg-utils repository

quite some time ago (prior to the inclusion of xdg-utils in Slackware), but

was never fixed in the official release of xdg-utils. The sources for

xdg-utils in Slackware have now been updated from the repo to fix the problem.

For more information, see:

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-0386

(* Security fix *)

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Where to find the new packages:

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HINT: Getting slow download speeds from ftp.slackware.com?

Give slackware.osuosl.org a try. This is another primary FTP site

for Slackware that can be considerably faster than downloading

directly from ftp.slackware.com.

 

Thanks to the friendly folks at the OSU Open Source Lab

(http://osuosl.org) for donating additional FTP and rsync hosting

to the Slackware project! :-)

 

Also see the "Get Slack" section on http://slackware.com for

additional mirror sites near you.

 

Updated package for Slackware 12.2:

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-12.2/patches/packages/xdg-utils-1.0.2-noarch-3_slack12.2.tgz

 

Updated package for Slackware -current:

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/slackware/x/xdg-utils-1.0.2-noarch-3.tgz

 

 

MD5 signatures:

+-------------+

 

Slackware 12.2 package:

98bc4e7784a4347f9700dc3dc3a0c892 xdg-utils-1.0.2-noarch-3_slack12.2.tgz

 

Slackware -current package:

61cd5c6a64a1d69d682dcf171e826ad0 xdg-utils-1.0.2-noarch-3.tgz

 

 

Installation instructions:

+------------------------+

 

Upgrade the package as root:

# upgradepkg xdg-utils-1.0.2-noarch-3_slack12.2.tgz

 

 

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Slackware Linux Security Team

http://slackware.com/gpg-key

security ( -at -) slackware.com

 

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