1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-153-1

USN-153-1: fetchmail vulnerability

Publication date

26 July 2005

Overview

fetchmail vulnerability

Releases

Details

Ross Boylan discovered a remote buffer overflow in fetchmail. By
sending invalid responses with very long UIDs, a faulty or malicious
POP server could crash fetchmail or execute arbitrary code with the
privileges of the user invoking fetchmail.

fetchmail is commonly run as root to fetch mail for multiple user
accounts; in this case, this vulnerability could be exploited to
compromise the whole system.

Ross Boylan discovered a remote buffer overflow in fetchmail. By
sending invalid responses with very long UIDs, a faulty or malicious
POP server could crash fetchmail or execute arbitrary code with the
privileges of the user invoking fetchmail.

fetchmail is commonly run as root to fetch mail for multiple user
accounts; in this case, this vulnerability could be exploited to
compromise the whole system.

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
5.04 hoary fetchmail – 
4.10 warty fetchmail – 

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 ›