GLSA 200909-01: Linux-PAM: Privilege escalation

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	Linux-PAM: Privilege escalation
Date:	09/07/2009
Bugs:	#261512
ID:	200909-01

Synopsis

An error in the handling of user names of Linux-PAM might allow remote attackers to cause a Denial of Service or escalate privileges.

Background

Linux-PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is an architecture allowing the separation of the development of privilege granting software from the development of secure and appropriate authentication schemes.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
sys-libs/pam	< 1.0.4	>= 1.0.4	All supported architectures

Description

Marcus Granado repoted that Linux-PAM does not properly handle user names that contain Unicode characters. This is related to integer signedness errors in the pam_StrTok() function in libpam/pam_misc.c.

Impact

A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a Denial of Service. A remote authenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to log in to a system with the account of a user that has a similar user name, but with non-ASCII characters.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Linux-PAM users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-libs/pam-1.0.4"

References

CVE-2009-0887

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200909-01.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.