USN-5477-1: ncurses vulnerabilities

Publication date

14 June 2022

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in ncurses.


Packages

  • ncurses - shared libraries for terminal handling (32-bit)

Details

Hosein Askari discovered that ncurses was incorrectly performing
memory management operations when dealing with long filenames while
writing structures into the file system. An attacker could possibly
use this issue to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary
code. (CVE-2017-16879)

Chung-Yi Lin discovered that ncurses was incorrectly handling access
to invalid memory areas when parsing terminfo or termcap entries where
the use-name had invalid syntax. An attacker could possibly use this
issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2018-19211)

It was discovered that ncurses was incorrectly performing bounds
checks when processing invalid hashcodes. An attacker could possibly
use this issue to cause a denial of service or to expose sensitive
information. (CVE-2019-17594)

It was discovered that ncurses...

Hosein Askari discovered that ncurses was incorrectly performing
memory management operations when dealing with long filenames while
writing structures into the file system. An attacker could possibly
use this issue to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary
code. (CVE-2017-16879)

Chung-Yi Lin discovered that ncurses was incorrectly handling access
to invalid memory areas when parsing terminfo or termcap entries where
the use-name had invalid syntax. An attacker could possibly use this
issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2018-19211)

It was discovered that ncurses was incorrectly performing bounds
checks when processing invalid hashcodes. An attacker could possibly
use this issue to cause a denial of service or to expose sensitive
information. (CVE-2019-17594)

It was discovered that ncurses was incorrectly handling
end-of-string characters when processing terminfo and termcap files.
An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of
service or to expose sensitive information. (CVE-2019-17595)

It was discovered that ncurses was incorrectly handling
end-of-string characters when converting between termcap and
terminfo formats. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause
a denial of service or execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-39537)

It was discovered that ncurses was incorrectly performing bounds
checks when dealing with corrupt terminfo data while reading a
terminfo file. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a
denial of service or to expose sensitive information.
(CVE-2022-29458)


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
16.04 xenial libtinfo5 –  6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2  
ncurses-bin –  6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2  
libncurses5 –  6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2  
14.04 trusty libtinfo5 –  5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2  
ncurses-bin –  5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2  
libncurses5 –  5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2  

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