GLSA 200804-15: libpng: Execution of arbitrary code

Severity:high
Title:libpng: Execution of arbitrary code
Date:04/15/2008
Bugs: #217047
ID:200804-15

Synopsis

A vulnerability in libpng may allow for execution of arbitrary code in certain applications that handle untrusted images.

Background

libpng is a free ANSI C library used to process and manipulate PNG images.

Affected packages

Package Vulnerable Unaffected Architecture(s)
media-libs/libpng < 1.2.26-r1 >= 1.2.26-r1 All supported architectures

Description

Tavis Ormandy of the Google Security Team discovered that libpng does not handle zero-length unknown chunks in PNG files correctly, which might lead to memory corruption in applications that call png_set_read_user_chunk_fn() or png_set_keep_unknown_chunks().

Impact

A remote attacker could entice a user or automated system to process a specially crafted PNG image in an application using libpng and possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application. Note that processing of unknown chunks is disabled by default in most PNG applications, but some such as ImageMagick are affected.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All libpng users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=media-libs/libpng-1.2.26-r1"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200804-15.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.

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!