GLSA 200408-11: Nessus: "adduser" race condition vulnerability

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	Nessus: "adduser" race condition vulnerability
Date:	08/12/2004
Bugs:	#58014
ID:	200408-11

Synopsis

Nessus contains a vulnerability allowing a user to perform a privilege escalation attack.

Background

Nessus is a free and powerful network security scanner.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
net-analyzer/nessus	<= 2.0.11	>= 2.0.12	All supported architectures

Description

A race condition can occur in "nessus-adduser" if the user has not configured their TMPDIR variable.

Impact

A malicious user could exploit this bug to escalate privileges to the rights of the user running "nessus-adduser".

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time. All users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest available version of Nessus.

Resolution

All Nessus users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge sync
    
    # emerge -pv ">=net-analyzer/nessus-2.0.12"
    # emerge ">=net-analyzer/nessus-2.0.12"

References

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200408-11.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.