A new security update has been released for Gentoo Linux - PulseAudio: Local privilege escalation. Here the announcement:
Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200907-13
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: High
Title: PulseAudio: Local privilege escalation
Date: July 16, 2009
Bugs: #276986
ID: 200907-13
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Synopsis
========
A vulnerability in PulseAudio may allow a local user to execute code
with escalated privileges.
Background
==========
PulseAudio is a network-enabled sound server with an advanced plug-in
system.
Affected packages
=================
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1 media-sound/pulseaudio < 0.9.9-r54 >= 0.9.9-r54
Description
===========
Tavis Ormandy and Julien Tinnes of the Google Security Team discovered
that the pulseaudio binary is installed setuid root, and does not drop
privileges before re-executing itself. The vulnerability has
independently been reported to oCERT by Yorick Koster.
Impact
======
A local user who has write access to any directory on the file system
containing /usr/bin can exploit this vulnerability using a race
condition to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.
Workaround
==========
Ensure that the file system holding /usr/bin does not contain
directories that are writable for unprivileged users.
Resolution
==========
All PulseAudio users should upgrade to the latest version:
# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot -v ">=media-sound/pulseaudio-0.9.9-r54"
References
==========
[ 1 ] CVE-2009-1894
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-1894
Availability
============
This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at
the Gentoo Security Website:
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200907-13.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 2009 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/2.5
