1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-161-1

USN-161-1: bzip2 utility vulnerability

Publication date

5 August 2005

Overview

bzip2 utility vulnerability

Releases

Details

USN-158-1 fixed a command injection vulnerability in the “zgrep”
utility. It was determined that the “bzgrep” counterpart in the bzip2
package is vulnerable to the same flaw.

bzgrep did not handle shell metacharacters like ‘|’ and ‘&’ properly
when they occurred in input file names. This could be exploited to
execute arbitrary commands with user privileges if bzgrep was run in
an untrusted directory with specially crafted file names.

USN-158-1 fixed a command injection vulnerability in the “zgrep”
utility. It was determined that the “bzgrep” counterpart in the bzip2
package is vulnerable to the same flaw.

bzgrep did not handle shell metacharacters like ‘|’ and ‘&’ properly
when they occurred in input file names. This could be exploited to
execute arbitrary commands with user privileges if bzgrep was run in
an untrusted directory with specially crafted file names.

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 bzip2 – 
4.10 warty bzip2 – 

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References

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