GLSA 200505-09: Gaim: Denial of Service and buffer overflow vulnerabilties

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	high
Title:	Gaim: Denial of Service and buffer overflow vulnerabilties
Date:	05/12/2005
Bugs:	#91862
ID:	200505-09

Synopsis

Gaim contains two vulnerabilities, potentially resulting in the execution of arbitrary code or Denial of Service.

Background

Gaim is a full featured instant messaging client which handles a variety of instant messaging protocols.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
net-im/gaim	< 1.3.0	>= 1.3.0	All supported architectures

Description

Stu Tomlinson discovered that Gaim is vulnerable to a remote stack based buffer overflow when receiving messages in certain protocols, like Jabber and SILC, with a very long URL (CAN-2005-1261). Siebe Tolsma discovered that Gaim is also vulnerable to a remote Denial of Service attack when receiving a specially crafted MSN message (CAN-2005-1262).

Impact

A remote attacker could cause a buffer overflow by sending an instant message with a very long URL, potentially leading to the execution of malicious code. By sending a SLP message with an empty body, a remote attacker could cause a Denial of Service or crash of the Gaim client.

Workaround

There are no known workarounds at this time.

Resolution

All Gaim users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-im/gaim-1.3.0"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200505-09.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.