1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-886-1

USN-886-1: Pidgin vulnerabilities

Publication date

18 January 2010

Overview

Pidgin vulnerabilities

Releases

Packages

Details

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain topic
messages in the IRC protocol handler. If a user were tricked into
connecting to a malicious IRC server, an attacker could cause Pidgin to
crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04
LTS, Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-2703)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly enforce the “require
TLS/SSL” setting when connecting to certain older Jabber servers. If a
remote attacker were able to perform a machine-in-the-middle attack, this flaw
could be exploited to view sensitive information. This issue only affected
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-3026)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain SLP invite
messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a
specially crafted invite message...

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain topic
messages in the IRC protocol handler. If a user were tricked into
connecting to a malicious IRC server, an attacker could cause Pidgin to
crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04
LTS, Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-2703)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly enforce the “require
TLS/SSL” setting when connecting to certain older Jabber servers. If a
remote attacker were able to perform a machine-in-the-middle attack, this flaw
could be exploited to view sensitive information. This issue only affected
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-3026)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain SLP invite
messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a
specially crafted invite message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a
denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, Ubuntu 8.10
and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-3083)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain errors in the
XMPP protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted
message and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of service. This
issue only affected Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-3085)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle malformed
contact-list data in the OSCAR protocol handler. A remote attacker could
send specially crafted contact-list data and cause Pidgin to crash, leading
to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-3615)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle custom smiley
requests in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a
specially crafted filename in a custom smiley request and obtain arbitrary
files via directory traversal. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.10, Ubuntu
9.04 and Ubuntu 9.10. (CVE-2010-0013)

Pidgin for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS was also updated to fix connection issues with
the MSN protocol.

USN-675-1 and USN-781-1 provided updated Pidgin packages to fix multiple
security vulnerabilities in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. The security patches to fix
CVE-2008-2955 and CVE-2009-1376 were incomplete. This update corrects the
problem. Original advisory details:

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle file transfers
containing a long filename and special characters in the MSN protocol
handler. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted filename in a
file transfer request and cause Pidgin to crash, leading to a denial of
service. (CVE-2008-2955)

It was discovered that Pidgin did not properly handle certain malformed
messages in the MSN protocol handler. A remote attacker could send a
specially crafted message and possibly execute arbitrary code with user
privileges. (CVE-2009-1376)

Update instructions

After a standard system upgrade you need to restart Pidgin 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
9.10 karmic pidgin –  1:2.6.2-1ubuntu7.1
9.04 jaunty pidgin –  1:2.5.5-1ubuntu8.5
8.10 intrepid pidgin –  1:2.5.2-0ubuntu1.6
8.04 hardy pidgin –  1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.8

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References

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