Ubuntu Security Notices
USN-173-4

USN-173-4: PCRE vulnerabilities

Publication date

31 August 2005

Overview

PCRE vulnerabilities

Releases

Details

USN-173-1 fixed a buffer overflow vulnerability in the PCRE library.
However, it was found that the various python packages and gnumeric
contain static copies of the library code, so these packages need to
be updated as well.

In gnumeric this bug could be exploited to execute arbitrary code with
the privileges of the user if the user was tricked into opening a
specially crafted spreadsheet document.

In python, the impact depends on the particular application that uses
python’s “re” (regular expression) module. In python server
applications that process unchecked arbitrary regular expressions with
the “re” module, this could potentially be exploited to remotely
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the server.

In gnumeric this bug could be exploited to execute arbitrary code with
the privileges of the user if the user was tricked into opening a
specially crafted spreadsheet document.

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	gnumeric –
	python2.2 –
	python2.1 –
	python2.3 –
4.10 warty	gnumeric –
	python2.2 –
	python2.1 –
	python2.3 –

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References

CVE-2005-2491

CVE-2005-2491

USN-173-4: PCRE vulnerabilities

Details

Update instructions

Reduce your security exposure

References

Related notices