USN-636-1: Postfix vulnerability

Publication date

19 August 2008

Overview

Postfix vulnerability


Packages

Details

Sebastian Krahmer discovered that Postfix was not correctly handling
mailbox ownership when dealing with Linux’s implementation of hardlinking
to symlinks. In certain mail spool configurations, a local attacker
could exploit this to append data to arbitrary files as the root user.
The default Ubuntu configuration was not vulnerable.

Sebastian Krahmer discovered that Postfix was not correctly handling
mailbox ownership when dealing with Linux’s implementation of hardlinking
to symlinks. In certain mail spool configurations, a local attacker
could exploit this to append data to arbitrary files as the root user.
The default Ubuntu configuration was not vulnerable.

Update instructions

In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect 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
8.04 hardy postfix –  2.5.1-2ubuntu1.1
7.10 gutsy postfix –  2.4.5-3ubuntu1.2
7.04 feisty postfix –  2.3.8-2ubuntu0.2
6.06 dapper postfix –  2.2.10-1ubuntu0.2

Reduce your security exposure

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