GLSA 200610-03 ncompress: Buffer Underflow

Posted by Bob on: 10/06/2006 07:55 PM [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]

A new security update has been released for Gentoo Linux - ncompress: Buffer Underflow. Here the announcement:

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200610-03
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: Normal
Title: ncompress: Buffer Underflow
Date: October 06, 2006
Bugs: #141728
ID: 200610-03

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Synopsis
========

A buffer underflow vulnerability has been reported in ncompress
allowing for the execution of arbitrary code.

Background
==========

ncompress is a suite of utilities to create and extract
Lempel-Ziff-Welch (LZW) compressed archives.

Affected packages
=================

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1 app-arch/ncompress lt; 4.2.4.1 gt;= 4.2.4.1

Description
===========

Tavis Ormandy of the Google Security Team discovered a static buffer
underflow in ncompress.

Impact
======

An attacker could create a specially crafted LZW archive, that when
decompressed by a user or automated system would result in the
execution of arbitrary code with the permissions of the user invoking
the utility.

Workaround
==========

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution
==========

All ncompress users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose "gt;=app-arch/ncompress-4.2.4.1"

References
==========

[ 1 ] CVE-2006-1168
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2006-1168

Availability
============

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at
the Gentoo Security Website:

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200610-03.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@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at
http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
=======

Copyright 2006 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