USN-3029-1: NSS vulnerability

Publication date

11 July 2016

Overview

NSS could be made to crash or run programs if it processed specially crafted network traffic.


Packages

  • nss - Network Security Service library

Details

Tyson Smith and Jed Davis discovered that NSS incorrectly handled memory. A
remote attacker could use this issue to cause NSS to crash, resulting in a
denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code.

This update refreshes the NSS package to version 3.23 which includes
the latest CA certificate bundle. As a security improvement, this update
also modifies NSS behaviour to reject DH key sizes below 1024 bits,
preventing a possible downgrade attack.

Tyson Smith and Jed Davis discovered that NSS incorrectly handled memory. A
remote attacker could use this issue to cause NSS to crash, resulting in a
denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code.

This update refreshes the NSS package to version 3.23 which includes
the latest CA certificate bundle. As a security improvement, this update
also modifies NSS behaviour to reject DH key sizes below 1024 bits,
preventing a possible downgrade attack.

Update instructions

This update uses a new upstream release, which includes additional bug fixes. After a standard system update you need to restart any applications that use NSS, such as Evolution and Chromium, to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
16.04 xenial libnss3 –  2:3.23-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
15.10 wily libnss3 –  2:3.23-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
14.04 trusty libnss3 –  2:3.23-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
12.04 precise libnss3 –  2:3.23-0ubuntu0.12.04.1

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