GLSA 200903-24 Shadow: Privilege escalation

Posted by Bob on: 03/10/2009 11:50 PM [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]

A new security update has been released for Gentoo Linux - Shadow: Privilege escalation. Here the announcement:

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200903-24
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: High
Title: Shadow: Privilege escalation
Date: March 10, 2009
Bugs: #251320
ID: 200903-24

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Synopsis
========

An insecure temporary file usage in Shadow may allow local users to
gain root privileges.

Background
==========

Shadow is a set of tools to deal with user accounts.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1 sys-apps/shadow lt; 4.1.2.2 gt;= 4.1.2.2

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

Paul Szabo reported a race condition in the "login" executable when
setting up tty permissions.

Impact
======

A local attacker belonging to the "utmp" group could use symlink
attacks to overwrite arbitrary files and possibly gain root privileges.

Workaround
==========

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution
==========

All Shadow users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose "gt;=sys-apps/shadow-4.1.2.2"

References
==========

[ 1 ] CVE-2008-5394
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-5394

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

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

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200903-24.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 2009 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