USN-17-1: passwd vulnerability

5 November 2004

passwd vulnerability

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Releases

Details

Martin Schulze and Steve Grubb discovered a flaw in the authentication
input validation of the “chfn” and “chsh” programs. This allowed
logged in users with an expired password to change their real name and
their login shell without having to change their password.

This flaw cannot lead to privilege escalation and does not allow to
modify account properties of other users, so the impact is relatively
low.

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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.

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 4.10
  • login -

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

References

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Further reading