1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-730-1

USN-730-1: libpng vulnerabilities

Publication date

6 March 2009

Overview

libpng vulnerabilities

Releases

Packages

Details

It was discovered that libpng did not properly perform bounds checking in
certain operations. An attacker could send a specially crafted PNG image and
cause a denial of service in applications linked against libpng. This issue
only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. (CVE-2007-5268, CVE-2007-5269)

Tavis Ormandy discovered that libpng did not properly initialize memory. If a
user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted PNG image, an
attacker could cause a denial of service via application crash, or possibly
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user invoking the program.
This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10. (CVE-2008-1382)

Harald van Dijk discovered an off-by-one error in libpng. An attacker could
could cause an application crash in programs using pngtest. (

It was discovered that libpng did not properly perform bounds checking in
certain operations. An attacker could send a specially crafted PNG image and
cause a denial of service in applications linked against libpng. This issue
only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. (CVE-2007-5268, CVE-2007-5269)

Tavis Ormandy discovered that libpng did not properly initialize memory. If a
user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted PNG image, an
attacker could cause a denial of service via application crash, or possibly
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user invoking the program.
This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10. (CVE-2008-1382)

Harald van Dijk discovered an off-by-one error in libpng. An attacker could
could cause an application crash in programs using pngtest. (CVE-2008-3964)

It was discovered that libpng did not properly NULL terminate a keyword
string. An attacker could exploit this to set arbitrary memory locations to
zero. (CVE-2008-5907)

Glenn Randers-Pehrson discovered that libpng did not properly initialize
pointers. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted PNG
file, an attacker could cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary
code with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2009-0040)

Update instructions

After a standard system upgrade you need to reboot your computer 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 libpng12-0 –  1.2.27-1ubuntu0.1
8.04 hardy libpng12-0 –  1.2.15~beta5-3ubuntu0.1
7.10 gutsy libpng12-0 –  1.2.15~beta5-2ubuntu0.2
6.06 dapper libpng12-0 –  1.2.8rel-5ubuntu0.4

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.

Get Ubuntu Pro

References

Have additional questions?

Talk to a member of the team ›