1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-2058-1

USN-2058-1: curl vulnerability

Publication date

18 December 2013

Overview

Fraudulent security certificates could allow sensitive information to be exposed when accessing the Internet.

Releases

Packages

  • curl - HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP client and client libraries

Details

Marc Deslauriers discovered that libcurl incorrectly verified CN and SAN
name fields when digital signature verification was disabled in the GnuTLS
backend. When libcurl is being used in this uncommon way by specific
applications, an attacker could exploit this to perform a machine-in-the-middle
attack to view sensitive information or alter encrypted communications.

Marc Deslauriers discovered that libcurl incorrectly verified CN and SAN
name fields when digital signature verification was disabled in the GnuTLS
backend. When libcurl is being used in this uncommon way by specific
applications, an attacker could exploit this to perform a machine-in-the-middle
attack to view sensitive information or alter encrypted communications.

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
13.10 saucy libcurl3-gnutls –  7.32.0-1ubuntu1.2
13.04 raring libcurl3-gnutls –  7.29.0-1ubuntu3.4
12.10 quantal libcurl3-gnutls –  7.27.0-1ubuntu1.7
12.04 precise libcurl3-gnutls –  7.22.0-3ubuntu4.6

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References

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