USN-5378-3: XZ Utils vulnerability

Publication date

13 April 2022

Overview

XZ Utils could be made to overwrite arbitrary files.


Packages

  • xz-utils - XZ-format compression utilities

Details

USN-5378-2 fixed a vulnerability in XZ Utils. This update provides
the corresponding update for Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and 16.04 ESM.

Original advisory details:

Cleemy Desu Wayo discovered that Gzip incorrectly handled certain
filenames. If a user or automated system were tricked into performing zgrep
operations with specially crafted filenames, a remote attacker could
overwrite arbitrary files.

USN-5378-2 fixed a vulnerability in XZ Utils. This update provides
the corresponding update for Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and 16.04 ESM.

Original advisory details:

Cleemy Desu Wayo discovered that Gzip incorrectly handled certain
filenames. If a user or automated system were tricked into performing zgrep
operations with specially crafted filenames, a remote attacker could
overwrite arbitrary files.

Update instructions

In general, a standard system update will 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 xz-utils –  5.1.1alpha+20120614-2ubuntu2.16.04.1+esm1  
14.04 trusty xz-utils –  5.1.1alpha+20120614-2ubuntu2.14.04.1+esm1  

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