1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-695-1

USN-695-1: shadow vulnerability

Publication date

18 December 2008

Overview

shadow vulnerability

Releases

Packages

Details

Paul Szabo discovered a race condition in login. While setting up
tty permissions, login did not correctly handle symlinks. If a local
attacker were able to gain control of the system utmp file, they could
cause login to change the ownership and permissions on arbitrary files,
leading to a root privilege escalation.

Paul Szabo discovered a race condition in login. While setting up
tty permissions, login did not correctly handle symlinks. If a local
attacker were able to gain control of the system utmp file, they could
cause login to change the ownership and permissions on arbitrary files,
leading to a root privilege escalation.

Update instructions

In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect 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
8.10 intrepid login –  1:4.1.1-1ubuntu1.2
8.04 hardy login –  1:4.0.18.2-1ubuntu2.2
7.10 gutsy login –  1:4.0.18.1-9ubuntu0.2
6.06 dapper login –  1:4.0.13-7ubuntu3.4

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References

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