1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-4616-1

USN-4616-1: AccountsService vulnerabilities

Publication date

3 November 2020

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in AccountsService.

Releases

Packages

Details

Kevin Backhouse discovered that AccountsService incorrectly dropped
privileges. A local user could possibly use this issue to cause
AccountsService to crash or hang, resulting in a denial of service.
(CVE-2020-16126)

Kevin Backhouse discovered that AccountsService incorrectly handled reading
.pam_environment files. A local user could possibly use this issue to cause
AccountsService to crash or hang, resulting in a denial of service. This
issue only affected Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.10. (CVE-2020-16127)

Matthias Gerstner discovered that AccountsService incorrectly handled
certain path checks. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to
read arbitrary files. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu
18.04 LTS. (CVE-2018-14036)

Kevin Backhouse discovered that AccountsService incorrectly dropped
privileges. A local user could possibly use this issue to cause
AccountsService to crash or hang, resulting in a denial of service.
(CVE-2020-16126)

Kevin Backhouse discovered that AccountsService incorrectly handled reading
.pam_environment files. A local user could possibly use this issue to cause
AccountsService to crash or hang, resulting in a denial of service. This
issue only affected Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.10. (CVE-2020-16127)

Matthias Gerstner discovered that AccountsService incorrectly handled
certain path checks. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to
read arbitrary files. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu
18.04 LTS. (CVE-2018-14036)

Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to 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
20.10 groovy accountsservice –  0.6.55-0ubuntu13.2
libaccountsservice0 –  0.6.55-0ubuntu13.2
20.04 focal accountsservice –  0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.4
libaccountsservice0 –  0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.4
18.04 bionic accountsservice –  0.6.45-1ubuntu1.3
libaccountsservice0 –  0.6.45-1ubuntu1.3
16.04 xenial accountsservice –  0.6.40-2ubuntu11.6
libaccountsservice0 –  0.6.40-2ubuntu11.6

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References

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