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A kfax security update has been released for Gentoo Linux

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200412-17
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: Normal
Title: kfax: Multiple overflows in the included TIFF library
Date: December 19, 2004
Bugs: #73795
ID: 200412-17

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Synopsis
========

kfax contains several buffer overflows potentially leading to execution of arbitrary code.



Background
==========

KDE is a feature-rich graphical desktop environment for Linux and Unix-like Operating Systems. kfax (part of kdegraphics) is the KDE fax file viewer.

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

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Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
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1 kde-base/kdegraphics < 3.3.1 Vulnerable!
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NOTE: Certain packages are still vulnerable. See Workaround.

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

Than Ngo discovered that kfax contains a private copy of the TIFF library and is therefore subject to several known vulnerabilities (see References).

Impact
======

A remote attacker could entice a user to view a carefully-crafted TIFF image file with kfax, which would potentially lead to execution of arbitrary code with the rights of the user running kfax.

Workaround
==========

The KDE Team recommends to remove the kfax binary as well as the kfaxpart.la KPart:

rm /usr/kde/3.*/lib/kde3/kfaxpart.la
rm /usr/kde/3.*/bin/kfax

Note: This will render the kfax functionality useless, if kfax functionality is needed you should upgrade to the KDE 3.3.2 which is not stable at the time of this writing.

Resolution
==========

All kfax users should use the workaround as no patches are available yet.

References
==========

[ 1 ] KDE Security Advisory: kfax libtiff vulnerabilities
http://www.kde.org/info/security/advisory-20041209-2.txt
[ 2 ] GLSA 200410-11
http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200410-11.xml
[ 3 ] CAN-2004-0803
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2004-0803
[ 4 ] CAN-2004-0804
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2004-0804
[ 5 ] CAN-2004-0886
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2004-0886

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

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

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200412-17.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 2004 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/2.0