GLSA 200711-27: Link Grammar: User-assisted execution of arbitrary code

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	Link Grammar: User-assisted execution of arbitrary code
Date:	11/18/2007
Bugs:	#196803
ID:	200711-27

Synopsis

A buffer overflow vulnerability has been discovered in Link Grammar.

Background

The Link Grammar parser is a syntactic parser of English, based on link grammar, an original theory of English syntax.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
dev-libs/link-grammar	< 4.2.4-r1	>= 4.2.4-r1	All supported architectures

Description

Alin Rad Pop from Secunia Research discovered a boundary error in the function separate_sentence() in file tokenize.c when processing an overly long word which might lead to a stack-based buffer overflow.

Impact

A remote attacker could entice a user to parse a specially crafted sentence, resulting in the remote execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application. Note that this vulnerability may be triggered by an application using Link Grammar to parse sentences (e.g. AbiWord).

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Link Grammar users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=dev-libs/link-grammar-4.2.4-r1"

References

CVE-2007-5395

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200711-27.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.