1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-252-1

USN-252-1: gnupg vulnerability

Publication date

18 February 2006

Overview

gnupg vulnerability

Releases

Details

Tavis Ormandy discovered a potential weakness in the signature
verification of gnupg. gpgv and gpg --verify returned a successful
exit code even if the checked file did not have any signature at all.
The recommended way of checking the result is to evaluate the status
messages, but some third party applications might just check the exit
code for determining whether or not a signature is valid. These
applications could be tricked into erroneously reporting a valid
signature.

Please note that this does not affect the Ubuntu package signature
checks.

Tavis Ormandy discovered a potential weakness in the signature
verification of gnupg. gpgv and gpg --verify returned a successful
exit code even if the checked file did not have any signature at all.
The recommended way of checking the result is to evaluate the status
messages, but some third party applications might just check the exit
code for determining whether or not a signature is valid. These
applications could be tricked into erroneously reporting a valid
signature.

Please note that this does not affect the Ubuntu package signature
checks.

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
5.10 breezy gnupg – 
5.04 hoary gnupg – 
4.10 warty gnupg – 

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 ›