GLSA 200611-12: Ruby: Denial of Service vulnerability

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	Ruby: Denial of Service vulnerability
Date:	11/20/2006
Bugs:	#153497
ID:	200611-12

Synopsis

The Ruby cgi.rb CGI library is vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack.

Background

Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
dev-lang/ruby	< 1.8.5-r3	>= 1.8.5-r3	All supported architectures

Description

Zed Shaw, Jeremy Kemper, and Jamis Buck of the Mongrel project reported that the CGI library shipped with Ruby is vulnerable to a remote Denial of Service by an unauthenticated user.

Impact

The vulnerability can be exploited by sending the cgi.rb library an HTTP request with multipart MIME encoding that contains a malformed MIME boundary specifier beginning with "-" instead of "--". Successful exploitation of the vulnerability causes the library to go into an infinite loop waiting for additional nonexistent input.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Ruby users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-lang/ruby-1.8.5-r3"

References

CVE-2006-5467

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200611-12.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.