GLSA 200505-15: gdb: Multiple vulnerabilities

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	gdb: Multiple vulnerabilities
Date:	05/20/2005
Bugs:	#88398, #91398, #91654
ID:	200505-15

Synopsis

Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in the GNU debugger, potentially allowing the execution of arbitrary code.

Background

gdb is the GNU project's debugger, facilitating the analysis and debugging of applications. The BFD library provides a uniform method of accessing a variety of object file formats.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
sys-devel/gdb	< 6.3-r3	>= 6.3-r3	All supported architectures

Description

Tavis Ormandy of the Gentoo Linux Security Audit Team discovered an integer overflow in the BFD library, resulting in a heap overflow. A review also showed that by default, gdb insecurely sources initialisation files from the working directory.

Impact

Successful exploitation would result in the execution of arbitrary code on loading a specially crafted object file or the execution of arbitrary commands.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All gdb users should upgrade to the latest stable version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-devel/gdb-6.3-r3"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200505-15.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.