USN-255-1: openssh vulnerability

Publication date

22 February 2006

Overview

openssh vulnerability


Details

Tomas Mraz discovered a shell code injection flaw in scp. When doing
local-to-local or remote-to-remote copying, scp expanded shell escape
characters. By tricking an user into using scp on a specially crafted
file name (which could also be caught by using an innocuous wild card
like ‘*’), an attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary shell
commands with the privilege of that user.

Please be aware that scp is not designed to operate securely on
untrusted file names, since it needs to stay compatible with rcp.
Please use sftp for automated systems and potentially untrusted file
names.

Tomas Mraz discovered a shell code injection flaw in scp. When doing
local-to-local or remote-to-remote copying, scp expanded shell escape
characters. By tricking an user into using scp on a specially crafted
file name (which could also be caught by using an innocuous wild card
like ‘*’), an attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary shell
commands with the privilege of that user.

Please be aware that scp is not designed to operate securely on
untrusted file names, since it needs to stay compatible with rcp.
Please use sftp for automated systems and potentially untrusted 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
5.10 breezy openssh-client – 
5.04 hoary openssh-client – 
4.10 warty openssh-client – 

Reduce your security exposure

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