GLSA 200612-03: GnuPG: Multiple vulnerabilities

Severity:normal
Title:GnuPG: Multiple vulnerabilities
Date:12/10/2006
Bugs: #156476, #156947
ID:200612-03

Synopsis

GnuPG is vulnerable to a buffer overflow and an erroneous function pointer dereference that can result in the execution of arbitrary code.

Background

The GNU Privacy Guard, GnuPG, is a free replacement for the PGP suite of cryptographic software.

Affected packages

Package Vulnerable Unaffected Architecture(s)
app-crypt/gnupg < 1.4.6 >= 1.4.6 All supported architectures

Description

Hugh Warrington has reported a boundary error in GnuPG, in the "ask_outfile_name()" function from openfile.c: the make_printable_string() function could return a string longer than expected. Additionally, Tavis Ormandy of the Gentoo Security Team reported a design error in which a function pointer can be incorrectly dereferenced.

Impact

A remote attacker could entice a user to interactively use GnuPG on a crafted file and trigger the boundary error, which will result in a buffer overflow. They could also entice a user to process a signed or encrypted file with gpg or gpgv, possibly called through another application like a mail client, to trigger the dereference error. Both of these vulnerabilities would result in the execution of arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running GnuPG. gpg-agent, gpgsm and other tools are not affected.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All GnuPG users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose "=app-crypt/gnupg-1.4*"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200612-03.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.

License

Copyright 2010 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.

Thank you!