[gentoo-announce] [ GLSA 200907-13 ] PulseAudio: Local privilege escalation

[news 28]

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200907-13

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http://security.gentoo.org/

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Severity: High

Title: PulseAudio: Local privilege escalation

Date: July 16, 2009

Bugs: #276986

ID: 200907-13

 

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Synopsis

========

 

A vulnerability in PulseAudio may allow a local user to execute code

with escalated privileges.

 

Background

==========

 

PulseAudio is a network-enabled sound server with an advanced plug-in

system.

 

Affected packages

=================

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected

-------------------------------------------------------------------

1 media-sound/pulseaudio < 0.9.9-r54 >= 0.9.9-r54

 

Description

===========

 

Tavis Ormandy and Julien Tinnes of the Google Security Team discovered

that the pulseaudio binary is installed setuid root, and does not drop

privileges before re-executing itself. The vulnerability has

independently been reported to oCERT by Yorick Koster.

 

Impact

======

 

A local user who has write access to any directory on the file system

containing /usr/bin can exploit this vulnerability using a race

condition to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.

 

Workaround

==========

 

Ensure that the file system holding /usr/bin does not contain

directories that are writable for unprivileged users.

 

Resolution

==========

 

All PulseAudio users should upgrade to the latest version:

 

# emerge --sync

# emerge --ask --oneshot -v ">=media-sound/pulseaudio-0.9.9-r54"

 

References

==========

 

[ 1 ] CVE-2009-1894

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-1894

 

Availability

============

 

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at

the Gentoo Security Website:

 

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200907-13.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 ( -at -) gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at

http://bugs.gentoo.org.

 

License

=======

 

Copyright 2009 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.

 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5