GLSA 200408-27: Gaim: New vulnerabilities

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	Gaim: New vulnerabilities
Date:	08/27/2004
Bugs:	#61457
ID:	200408-27

Synopsis

Gaim contains several security issues that might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code or commands.

Background

Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux which supports many instant messaging protocols.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
net-im/gaim	< 0.81-r5	>= 0.81-r5	All supported architectures

Description

Gaim fails to do proper bounds checking when:

Handling MSN messages (partially fixed with GLSA 200408-12).
Handling rich text format messages.
Resolving local hostname.
Receiving long URLs.
Handling groupware messages.
Allocating memory for webpages with fake content-length header.

Furthermore Gaim fails to escape filenames when using drag and drop installation of smiley themes.

Impact

These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to crash Gaim or execute arbitrary code or commands with the permissions of the user running Gaim.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time. All users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest available version of Gaim.

Resolution

All gaim users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge sync
    
    # emerge -pv ">=net-im/gaim-0.81-r5"
    # emerge ">=net-im/gaim-0.81-r5"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200408-27.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 https://bugs.gentoo.org.