Ubuntu Security Notice USN-1223-2
5th October, 2011
puppet regression
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Summary
USN-1223-1 caused a regression with managing SSH authorized_keys files.
Software description
- puppet - Centralized configuration management
Details
USN-1223-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Puppet. A regression was found on
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS that caused permission denied errors when managing SSH
authorized_keys files with Puppet. This update fixes the problem.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Original advisory details:
It was discovered that Puppet unsafely opened files when the k5login type
is used to manage files. A local attacker could exploit this to overwrite
arbitrary files which could be used to escalate privileges. (CVE-2011-3869)
Ricky Zhou discovered that Puppet did not drop privileges when creating
SSH authorized_keys files. A local attacker could exploit this to overwrite
arbitrary files as root. (CVE-2011-3870)
It was discovered that Puppet used a predictable filename when using the
--edit resource. A local attacker could exploit this to edit arbitrary
files or run arbitrary code as the user invoking the program, typically
root. (CVE-2011-3871)
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:
- Ubuntu 10.04 LTS:
- puppet-common 0.25.4-2ubuntu6.4
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.