An updated sudo package is available that fixes a race condition in sudo's pathname validation.
The sudo (superuser do) utility allows system administrators to give certain users the ability to run commands as root with logging.
2. Relevant releases/architectures:
Red Hat Linux 7.3 - i386 Red Hat Linux 9 - i386 Fedora Core 1 - i386 Fedora Core 2 - i386
3. Problem description:
A race condition bug was found in the way sudo handles pathnames. It is possible that a local user with limited sudo access could create a race condition that would allow the execution of arbitrary commands as the root user. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2005-1993 to this issue.
Users of sudo should update to this updated package, which contains a backported patch and is not vulnerable to this issue.
4. Solution:
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied.
To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Fvh [filenames]
where [filenames] is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directory *only* contains the desired RPMs.
Please note that this update is also available via yum and apt. Many people find this an easier way to apply updates. To use yum issue:
yum update
or to use apt:
apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate RPMs being upgraded on your system. This assumes that you have yum or apt-get configured for obtaining Fedora Legacy content. Please visit http://www.fedoralegacy.org/docs for directions on how to configure yum and apt-get.