A Perl security update is available for Gentoo Linux

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200502-13
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: High
Title: Perl: Vulnerabilities in perl-suid wrapper
Date: February 11, 2005
Bugs: #80460
ID: 200502-13

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Synopsis
=======

Vulnerabilities leading to file overwriting and code execution with elevated privileges have been discovered in the perl-suid wrapper.



Background
=========

Perl is a stable, cross-platform programming language created by Larry Wall. The perl-suid wrapper allows the use of setuid perl scripts, i.e. user-callable Perl scripts which have elevated privileges. This function is enabled only if you have the perlsuid USE flag set.

Affected packages
================

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1 dev-lang/perl < 5.8.6-r3 >= 5.8.6-r3
*>= 5.8.5-r4
*>= 5.8.4-r3
*>= 5.8.2-r3

Description
==========

perl-suid scripts honor the PERLIO_DEBUG environment variable and write to that file with elevated privileges (CAN-2005-0155). Furthermore, calling a perl-suid script with a very long path while PERLIO_DEBUG is set could trigger a buffer overflow (CAN-2005-0156).

Impact
=====

A local attacker could set the PERLIO_DEBUG environment variable and call existing perl-suid scripts, resulting in file overwriting and potentially the execution of arbitrary code with root privileges.

Workaround
=========

You are not vulnerable if you do not have the perlsuid USE flag set or do not use perl-suid scripts.

Resolution
=========

All Perl users should upgrade to the latest version:

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose dev-lang/perl

References
=========

[ 1 ] CAN-2005-0155
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-0155
[ 2 ] CAN-2005-0156
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2005-0156

Availability
===========

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website:

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200502-13.xml

Concerns?
========

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License
======

Copyright 2005 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0