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USN-1038-1: dpkg vulnerability

6 January 2011

A malicious source package could write files outside the unpack directory.

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Releases

Packages

  • dpkg - Debian package management system

Details

Jakub Wilk and Raphael Hertzog discovered that dpkg-source did not
correctly handle certain paths and symlinks when unpacking source-format
version 3.0 packages. If a user or an automated system were tricked into
unpacking a specially crafted source package, a remote attacker could
modify files outside the target unpack directory, leading to a denial
of service or potentially gaining access to the system.

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 9.10
Ubuntu 10.10
Ubuntu 10.04

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References