GLSA 200802-07: Pulseaudio: Privilege escalation

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	high
Title:	Pulseaudio: Privilege escalation
Date:	02/13/2008
Bugs:	#207214
ID:	200802-07

Synopsis

A vulnerability in pulseaudio may allow a local user to execute actions with escalated privileges.

Background

Pulseaudio is a networked sound server with an advanced plugin system.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
media-sound/pulseaudio	< 0.9.9	>= 0.9.9	All supported architectures

Description

Marcus Meissner from SUSE reported that the pa_drop_root() function does not properly check the return value of the system calls setuid(), seteuid(), setresuid() and setreuid() when dropping its privileges.

Impact

A local attacker could cause a resource exhaustion to make the system calls fail, which would cause Pulseaudio to run as root. The attacker could then perform actions with root privileges.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Pulseaudio users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=media-sound/pulseaudio-0.9.9"

References

CVE-2008-0008

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200802-07.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.