A new security update has been released for Gentoo Linux - Linux-PAM: Privilege escalation. Here the announcement:
Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200909-01
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http://security.gentoo.org/
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Severity: Normal
Title: Linux-PAM: Privilege escalation
Date: September 07, 2009
Bugs: #261512
ID: 200909-01
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Synopsis
========
An error in the handling of user names of Linux-PAM might allow remote
attackers to cause a Denial of Service or escalate privileges.
Background
==========
Linux-PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is an architecture
allowing the separation of the development of privilege granting
software from the development of secure and appropriate authentication
schemes.
Affected packages
=================
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Package / Vulnerable / Unaffected
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1 sys-libs/pam < 1.0.4 >= 1.0.4
Description
===========
Marcus Granado repoted that Linux-PAM does not properly handle user
names that contain Unicode characters. This is related to integer
signedness errors in the pam_StrTok() function in libpam/pam_misc.c.
Impact
======
A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a Denial of
Service. A remote authenticated attacker could exploit this
vulnerability to log in to a system with the account of a user that has
a similar user name, but with non-ASCII characters.
Workaround
==========
There is no known workaround at this time.
Resolution
==========
All Linux-PAM users should upgrade to the latest version:
# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose =sys-libs/pam-1.0.4
References
==========
[ 1 ] CVE-2009-0887
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-0887
Availability
============
This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at
the Gentoo Security Website:
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200909-01.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
https://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
